Benjamin's onwards
Walter Benjamin - The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)
"In principle a work of art has always been reproducible."
In the first part of the text, Benjamin presents a brief history and development of different art reproduction techniques. Until 1900, when "technical reproduction had reached a standard that not only permitted it to reproduce all transmitted works of art and thus to cause the most profound change in their impact upon the public."
In the second part the the concept of "existence", the "presence in time and space", is presented as the unique element that is impossible to achieve by any means of reproduction. "The authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning, ranging from its substantive duration to its testimony to the history which it has experienced". The act of creating a reproduction brings along a new context, opens up a new moment in history, at a certain time and place, when and where it happens to be. A new uniqueness and singularity is created. It is here and now. The concept of "aura" is introduced as to explain the missing element in any reproduced artifact. The moment of reproduction creates a detachment from the "domain of tradition". It is integrated further on in the timeline of art history. This may also contribute to enhance the original work of art, "by making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence."
In the third part of the text, the concept of "aura" is again further explained. "The mode of human sense perception changes with humanity's entire mode of existence", again a reference to the "historical circumstances" and the inability to reproduced them. Benjamin defines "the aura of the latter as the unique phenomenon of a distance", a sensible and supersensible enclosed contact with historical tradition (distance) creates its unique meaning. In contrast, "the desire of contemporary masses to bring things "closer" spatially and humanly (...) overcoming the uniqueness of every reality by accepting its reproduction." A liberation process occurred. In one hand , there is an "adjustment of reality to the masses and of the masses to reality". Integrating this works of art as a part of the socio-economical system - provided by means of reproduction. On the other hand, works of art seem to loose mystery and poetry, destroying its "aura", what makes something what it is; not exactly the essence but something closer to it, maybe an illusion.
In the last part, Benjamin's melancholic undertones around the concept of "aura" , and its relation/ dependance to "ritual" , brings in a religious quotation, a cult value. "This give rise to what might be called a negative theology in the form of the idea of "pure" art". "Aura" as a myst around each object, now vanishing, "the total function of art is reversed" to be "based on another practice-politics".
Art encountered "unlimited scope" around reproductions. "double hermeneutic of suspicion and revelation …" - how things are interpreted.