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Publications
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The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction
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The second category of media that is germane to this discussion is mechanically reproduced work, as introduced by Walter Benjamin in "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." In this work, Benjamin discusses the move of art from having cult or ritualistic value to exhibition value, and argues that the "aura" of a work of art is destroyed by reproduction. "Reproduction is lacking one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happened to be," he writes; the "presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity." (222) Although Benjamin pays a great deal of attention to film as a mechanically reproduced art form in his analysis, I would argue that film, although originally mechanically reproduced, is a time-based medium that foreshadows important issues more relevant to digitally reproduced media than mechanically reproduced media. Therefore, for the purpose of this paper, I will define mechanically reproduced work as artwork produced in multiples, work that primarily imitates traditional art forms. Reproduction, or the existence of multiple copies, changes the relationship of viewer to art object by imitating, but not being the sole and "authentic" object. Printmaking and photography, excluding the monoprint and the Poloroid, are two such media. In contemporary art exhibition and sale, such mechanically reproduced artwork is presented in the guise of "authentic" traditional art. That is, a print or photograph is presented in the gallery or museum as if it is the sole and "authentic" object even though there are multiples. These works imitate and preference the ways in which painting, drawing and sculpture became products to be exhibited. Benjamin writes: "With the emancipation of various art practices from ritual go increasing opportunities for exhibition of their products. It is easier to exhibit a portrait bust that can be sent here and there than to exhibit the statue of a divinity that has a fixed place in the interior of the temple. The same holds for a painting against a mosaic or fresco." (227) As artwork became recognized for its exhibition quality, this quality became one of the criteria for judging what is "art." Such exhibition privileges art as object, and more specifically, as "authentic" object existing solely in one time and place. |
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