User:ThomasW/Walter Notes

Walter Benjamin

1. In the ancient times they where only able to reproduce quality art mechanical was founding and stamping and all other types of art. With the invention of woodcut graphic they where able to produce large quality of art and print then making them by hand. Making something with the day eye takes less time then by hand. [production time, shorter than by hand - Ben]

2. Process reproduction can give you access to a hole other world. It can put a photo in places a paint will never be able to place it. You can access to things that naked eye will to be able to give you. Mechanical reproduction can give you a representation of a art work with without never be touch the original.

3. Kittel uses the term aura to illustrated the added sedimental value to art. Its what gives you a emotional connection and that brings one closer. “To pry an object from its shell, to destroy is aura”

4. That people think of “authentic” is based on rituals that have been since the Renaissance. Mechanical Reproduction freed the artwork from the parasitic dependency of the ritual.

Synopsis Walter Benjamin

When the mechanical toke over from the handmade, the mass production toke away the aura from the “item” but with mechanical reproduction it have given people more access to the “item”, democratised. Kittel used the aura to illustrated the add sedimental value to art. Authentic is based on rituals, mechanical Reproduction freed the artwork from the parasitic dependency of the ritual.

---

Bill Nichols - The Work of Culture in the Age of Cybernetic Systems (1988)

1 The computer is more then an object, it is also an icon and a metaphor that suggest new ways of thinking. Cybernetic systems include an entire array of machines. Cybernetic systems , symbolized[incarnated?manifested? - Ben] by the computer represent a set of transformations in our conception of and relation to self and reality.

2. Aura is what Benjamin means is authenticity. One things mechanical reproduction cannot reproduce is authenticity.

3.XXX

4. Mechanical reproduction involves the appropriation of an original. Developing new ways of seeing to the point wher they become habitual is not idelogical for Benjamin but transformative.

5.XXXX

6. In early capitalism, the human was defined in relation to an animal world that evoked facination, repulsion and resentment

7. The Human machine is defined in relation to cybernetic systems – computers, genetically engineered organisms ecosystem expert system robots, androids and cyborg.. The human is a part of the machine, an extension of the cybernetic systems. Cybernetic interaction can become intensely demanding, getting into the “zone” [What do you mean by the last part? - Ben]

8.XXX

9. The cinema cameras voyeuristic gaze with its “to-belooked-at-ness” on the feminine figure.

10. Benjamin noted the big task for the film to mask the means of film production, as keeping the means of production to interfere with the illusion.

11. The copy reproduces the world, the chip simulates it. The difference between is to be able to remake the world and interfere with the world

12. A simulation is the perfect replica that can be controlled by whoever controls the algorithms.

13.

14.

15.

16

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL RECOMBINATION - 2009 Jos de Mul

Page: 1 Intro Art, paintings, technology as a way to present information. Media is gives us the way of communication between people, the transmitter and receiver. Media, the version of an ida outsides ones minds. Walter B essay is a product of his time and also contains a lot about politics, religion and economics. How media has transformed human interaction and communication.

Cultural value vs Exhibition Value

Not before woodcut graphic was invented, did the idea of mass communication exist, It opened the door to mechanical reproduced information on larger scale then hand written/drawn information. But Photography and film was the first big invention that really toke it to the masses and change human interaction and communication.

Page:2 “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work art lacking in one element, its present in time and space”

Even that a reproduction my be identical in any present, the fact that it has not exist over time and have made its self a history of existing. There is may Mona Lisa, but only one is the first and that one one must travel to see. Aura: Based on ritual, Location, the need to travel to it, be around it, be in the same room. Be close to it It gets a religious meaning. [pilgrimage]

Page:3 The aura is an interface, it bring us closer to the work. Historical To destroy is aura is to destroy everything Aura is the thing that separate an “original” to a copy act of blasphemy Aura can also be used to things in nature, like forests.. mountain.

Page:4 Mechanical reproduced does make things closer to use, but on the sacrifice of no aura on the basis of reproducibility. A mass reproduced item has made the aura go away, as at one mass reproduced object is not less unik then another. Cult value can be maintainer for the reason of emotional or economical value Like do it in a limited, give it a history,

Page:5 The machine reproduction my make the aura go away, but it gives access to the special. Something that is limited can now the access by the many. As so make it more democratic.

Database ontology A computer is nothing more special in the world of mechanical reproduced as a typewriter or a photo-camera. Its is just is new form.[!]

Page:6

Database is a structured collection of data or information in fysial or data form. Phonebook,

Page:7 Databases in a modern world mainframes software search engines wikis

or DNA as a biologic database of genes Database is the dominant culture in the computer age. color=red>[!]

Page:8 With DNA the genes have been put into computer based databases so they can be mixed and match. Florescent rabbits Can a designed rabbit be called an artwork? Ethical issues

Page:9

Database aesthetics and politics Politics of art, the artistic and non artistic.