The thoughts what Benjamin had about the reproduction of art were as expected by any educated man. Especially the expressed focus on the loss of aura when producing and consuming mass media.
This is the moment where I will wind up myself. I am tired of people bashing photography or and Hollywood for their production. Things were not different in renaissance or in other times. The mob had the exact same entertainment as nowadays. People getting hanged, witched stoned to death, prostitution, bar brawls etc. I think that the mass reproduction of arts has raised the human kind to another, less barbaric level, and also cultivated common understanding between us (everybody loughs at Tom Hanks). Now comes the critique - oh we are all robots, losing our individuality. After centuries of wars over the right religion, flag or language or king i think a century, or even maybe two of common sense is in order.
The authenticate art, or aura hasn't gone nowhere. You still haven't seen nothing if you haven't been to Louvre etc. But the rise of reproduced art has given the common man the ability to live while pursuing the dream to get to Louvre.
Maybe the mass media is our false necessity created by capitalist system to enduringly enslave the mankind. But I feel oh so good when listening to the beat of house music or watching pretty Hollywood actresses act the decades old plot of boymeetsgirl-fallinlove-troublesahead-but everhappyattheend.
And if its wrong, i don't want to know right.
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Benjamin in his essay stated, that mechanical reproduction is different than man-made replicas of art pieces. He was convinced that photography was the greatest step away from man-made reproductivity. Reproduction, at its worst, harms historical authenticity, and therefore jeopardizes authorial authenticity. "Reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition", meaning that the artwork loses its aura, what it gained by time and place.
What valuates an authentic work? According to Benjamin "the unique value of the “authentic” work of art has its basis in ritual, the location of its original use value".
Today’s ways of reproductive art also kill the idealistic function of art (or its main servitude "… “pure” art, which not only denied any social function of art but also any categorizing by subject matter". This is now impossible, because art is a slave to the masses and like everything else; it needs to be labeled for better consumption.
The result of mass reproduction of art also creates the situation where art is freed from its historical dependence on rituals (cave-paintings to serve gods or to bring luck, not to decorate or entertain), forcing art to be dependent on reproductivity. "Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice – politics."
Benjamin also expressed belief that arts today have to choose between two sides: cult versus exposability. The latter being the more popular one.
When talking about film, some of the pioneer-authors according to Benjamin stated that art form to be the highest form of all. Benjamin disagrees, and refers to films like “The Gold Rush” (one of the first “Hollywood” movies).
When criticizing film, the audience can only criticize the camera, because everything else does not reach the audience. Although the actor uses its whole body, he or she still loses the aura – because camera can’t capture that.
Benjamin describes the film (in an actor’s point of view) as an image on the actor’s mirror which now is transportable.
Since there is no aura on the film, there has to be a cultism of the actor (superstars) – what Benjamin calls the "spell of the personality".
The other great impact what modern times and the new form of art production has on us, is that before there was only a small group of writers and a large group of readers. Now everybody is a writer (who hasn’t been in the news?). "Distinction between author and public is about to lose its basic character" (this can be greatly seen on blogs, social websites etc.).
One of the interesting parallels Benjamin made was that cameraman is to art what surgeon is to body, but the artist (painter) is like a magician.
"Our taverns and our metropolitan streets, our offices and furnished rooms, our railroad stations and our factories appeared to have us locked up hopelessly. Then came the film and burst this prison-world asunder by the dynamite of the tenth of a second, so that now, in the midst of its far-flung ruins and debris, we calmly and adventurously go traveling. With the close-up, space expands; with slow motion, movement is extended." No comments needed.
The death of art and aura didn’t come overnight. Benjamin sees Dadaists as the first wave of artist who introduced the effects of mass reproduction of art to society and art itself - they intentionally destroyed aura in their works.
In the end Benjamin states the current situation of man being as follows: "… can no longer think what I want to think. My thoughts have been replaced by moving images.” The spectator’s process of association in view of these images is indeed interrupted by their constant, sudden change". Thus there can’t be any true satisfaction of being exposed modern art.
Link to the text:
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm
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