User:Ruben/RWRM/7 - Reproduction

Annotation of Walter Benjamin - The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

I Works of art have always been reproducible. Replicas were made for practice, diffusion of the work or (obviously) for financial gain. Mechanical reproduction used to be limited, but of the ages its potential has grown - accelerating the last centuries. Its standard is now so that mechanical reproduction has reached a place among artistic processes.

II A reproduction lacks unique existence. The concept of authenticity requires the presence of the an original. In manual reproduction (in which the copy is often degraded) the original was authentic and therefore kept its authority. Mechanical reproduction is more independent of the original as it has the ability to reveal things the original cannot (ie. slomo) and enables the original to meet the beholder halfway. This jeopardizes the authority of the original

In the age of mechanical reproduction the aura of a work of art withers. Instead of a unique existence there is a plurality of objects. And because the reproduction meets the beholder/listener in his own particular situation it reactivates the object [HOW EXACLTY?]. This shattering of tradition, shifts the value of cultural heritage.

III The manner in which human sense production is organised is largely determined by historical context. Aura or natural objects is the unique phenomenon of distance, however close it may be (watching at a mountain range or a flower).

Contemporary decay of aura rests on two things which are related to increasing significance of the masses: the desire to bring things 'closer' and the the masses' bent towards overcoming the uniqueness of everyday life [WHAT IS HE POINTING AT?] by accepting its reproduction.

IV The tradition of a work of art is variable and adaptive to time. The aura of a work of art cannot be seen separate from the ritual function of the work. Therefore art reacted to the first revolutionary means of reproduction with l'art pour l'art: "a theology of art".

"Mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual." Art becomes designed for reproducibility. "But the instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice - politics"