Lit Theory - Benjamin - "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility"

Benjamin, Walter

1.     “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility”

a.     It has taken a long time for the conditions of production to be manifested in all areas of culture.

                                               i.     As it has taken time, only now can the changes be evaluated.

                                             ii.     Wants to identify how art is produced under the new system.

1.     The cause for change, or the reasons for change, is present in the superstructure and the economy.

2.     As such, the reasons are also present in the political structure that has significant effect.

3.     They neutralize ideas such as creativity, genius, and mystery.

                                            iii.     This work is a comparison of the traditional views of art versus art for fascism.

                                            iv.     Reproduction of art has always been reproducible.

1.     Only a few types of objects could be reproduced.

2.     Technology increased:

a.     The scope of the number of items that can be reproduced,

b.     To what quality, and

c.     To what quantity.

3.     By 1900, reproduction of all known works of art could be reproduced.

a.     It modified their effect, and

b.     Became an artistic process in and of itself.

                                             v.     An original has uniqueness and history.

1.     Technological reproductions:

a.     Is independent than manual reproduction,

b.     It can be distributed endlessly.  The original can only be in one place at one given time.  Reproductions can be many places.

c.     It substitutes uniqueness for mass production, or

d.     It detaches the work from the sphere of tradition.

                                            vi.     Originals can change over time.

1.     In the form of Decay.

2.     In the form of social changes in perception.

3.     These ideas make up an originals aura.

                                          vii.     An original by its aura can be understood through time, decay, and social perceptions.

                                         viii.     The aura is destroyed as:

1.     People increasingly want to be close to a thing, that in effect,

2.     Strips the original of its uniqueness.

                                            ix.     The unique value of the authentic work of art has its basis in ritual, the source of its original use value.

1.     This connection is being lost.

2.     Art is being produced for reproducibility.

3.     The basis of art is switching from ritual to politics.  

                                              x.     Originals have two types of characters that are opposites.

1.     There is a cult value that limits access to an original.

2.     There is exhibition value.

3.     Reproduction shifts cult value to exhibition value.  Shifts the creation of magic feel to just a work of art feel.

4.     Artistic value is seen as incidental.

5.     Exhibition value assaults cult value, but cult value has a refuge in human countenance.  Human expression gives photographs their melancholy and incomparable beauty.

6.     An example of exhibition being positive.

                                            xi.     Films.

1.     Significant difference between actors acting before people versus an apparatus (camera).

a.     The actor is performing for a piece of equipment.

b.     The actor loses his aura as the aura is attached to the here and now.

                                                                                                     i.     The actor’s performance is not.

c.     The film actor is a collection of parts that are assembled.

d.     The film actor is reduced to a prop.

2.     In the past, there were few performers/writers addressing a large group of people. 

a.     This has changed through technology.

3.     The removal of equipment from a film has increased the level of reality and believability.

a.     Traditional plays had stages, sets, curtains, orchestras where the viewer saw all the equipment put into the work.

b.     The removal of the equipment implies reality and the production, or medium, becomes invisible.

4.     Film can be used for:

a.     Artistic purposes and

b.     Scientific purposes.

                                                                                                     i.     Provide details and close ups,

                                                                                                   ii.     Accentuate hidden details of familiar objects.

5.     It has always been one of the primary tasks of art to create a demand whose hour of full satisfaction has not yet come.

6.     The masses are a matrix from which all customary behavior toward works of art is today emerging newborn.   Or, attitudes toward are art are being derived and exploited from the masses.

a.     Requires little thinking.

b.     Diversion from life.

c.     Doesn’t cultivate hope or motivation.

                                                                                                     i.     Distraction can be viewed as a habit and become the attitude to which art is directed.

7.     Modern art and culture are shaping and increasing the size of the masses.

a.     As the masses become disconnected and streamlined into one culture, they are more easily managed.  More specifically, to war and whims of the state.

Works Cited

Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility.”  The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.  Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al.  2^nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2010.  1046-1072. Print.