Annotation: Joe De Mul

Reading/writing: joe de mul Annotation

Jos de Mul

Media is not an innocent instrument

The presenting of information through media is filtered through the sensibility of the individual

"it is generally assumed that media play a crucial role in the configuration of the human mind and experience. Media are interfaces that mediate not only between us and our world (designation), but also between us and our fellow man (communication), and between us and ourselves (self-understanding)." We understand the world through media, we understand each other through this media and shared options/interests, and we communicate our ideas through a self understanding, and through comparisons of our perception of media

Asthetics are also a big part of how this information is crafted and perceived

In this essay, the author aims to : analyze the way the computer interface constitutes and structures aesthetic experience of media

Starting point of the debate is water Benjamin's claim that the "cult value" of an art work has been replaced by the "exhibition value".

Mul states that : " that in the age of digital recombination, the database constitutes the ontological model of the work of art and, secondly, that in this transformation the exhibition value is being replaced by what we might call manipulation value ."

The scope of both essays is broader than just art, but" It deals with the digital manipulation of nature and culture that characterizes the present ‘ age of informatization"

Art: before film and photography: " art ’ s dominant type was characterized by uniqueness"

" The original work of art is here and now" : the aura

Benjamin says: " Because of this aura, the unique work of art can easily become an object of a magical or religious cult."

Aura: "the auratic work of art the sensible and the supersensible, the material signifier and the spiritual meaning, are inseparably linked with one another."

Art works in modern day are objects of the cult of beauty "This ritualistic basis, however remote, is still recognizable as secularized ritual even in the most profane forms of the cult of beauty ."

"Cult image" : no matter how physically close, one remains far away

• • • • • • need clarification on what benjamins view on distance is********

"When we apply a key concept of the new media studies to Benjamin ’ s analysis, we might say that the auratic work of art acts as an interface between the sensible and the supersensible, that is: between the physical materiality of the work of art and its meaningful history. Although it may be close in its material presence– we could even touch the Mona Lisa if there were no glass separating it from its visitors in the Louvre– and as such it brings us in close contact with its history, at the same time we experience the historical tradition in which it is embedded and from which it derives its meaning as an unbridgeable distance."

Aura and symbol: " can be conceived of as a symbol . 4 The destruction of an auratic work destroys the distant presence of its history as well. For that reason the destruction of an auratic work of art is generally understood as an act of blasphemy– independent of whether it has a religious content or not."

Benjamin says : " hat which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art "

Mul thinks that : " Uniqueness and permanence of the auratic object are being replaced by transitoriness and reproducibility." Art is more accessible. reproduction the whole distinction between original and copy loses its meaning.

"To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility"

"According to Benjamin, together with the aura, the cult value of artworks will gradually vanish. For emotional or economical reasons one can, of course, try to conserve the cult value"

"in photography and film, the cult value gives way to exhibition value , which is precisely situated in the endless reproduction of the copies."

The value of a work, object, or figure is no longer the auaristic experience but on the exhibition value. Fame, popularity, demand

Benjamin ’ s essay has melancholic undertones, and he acts as if art will die, eventually, with this loss of aura. But at the same time, "Benjamin also expresses his belief that the ‘ mechanical media ’ possess a fundamental democratic and even revolutionary potential. Not only do they enable ‘ access for all ’ , they also enable the progressive artist to ‘ politicize the arts ’ and mobilize the masses against the fascist ‘ aesthetization of politics "

"The development of mechanical reproduction can neither simply be hailed as cultural progress nor simply doomed as cultural decline. Mechanical reproduction discloses the world in a new way, bringing along both new opportunities and new dangers. We should keep this fundamental ambiguity of the development of media in mind when we turn our attention to digital recombination"

Database ontology: "Understood as a medium, the computer is not one but many"

________

"As the number of recombinations of a database is almost infinite, the work of art in the age of digital recombination brings about a return of the aura"