Walter Benjamin

How do the ideas from Walter Benjamin's "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" apply to contemporary digital media?

Art started becoming, less manual and more technological, a long time ago when the camera as invented, and the ‘freeing’ of the hand of its most important artistic functions and handing it over to the action of the eye looking into the lens.

There was a time when "Art" was made by artists who were skilled professionals. Now that anyone with a computer can create things digitally (music, images, videos, etc), what does that mean for "art"?

- Art is defined by the opinion of the artist - Artists don’t have to make art that fits a certain prerequisite; they can just get an image and manipulate it on their own terms. - Digitally produced art is easy to make, but very difficult to master or to make a really excellent piece of artwork.
Is a photoshopped image "authentic"?

No, by altering the image, it becomes replicated and therefore it has become reproduced. The aura of the image has changed. The technique of reproduction takes away the authenticity of the image and erases all meaning of it beforehand, allowing for new meanings and opinions to be made about the newly reproduced image.

Do digital "things" have an "aura" (in Benjamin's terms)? Images taken by a digital camera and music that has been layered with different types of sounds, are not considered to have an ‘aura’ according to Benjamin. Are these digital things unique?

No. digital cameras have automatic flash operations, automated light enhancers, etc. Mp3 files, are layered with different formats, and even the sounds themselves are produced using different sounds, therefore, they are not unique things. they are purely the completions of several processes of reproduction.


"...We must expect great innovations to transform the entire technique of the arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself and perhaps even bringing about an amazing change in our very notion of art..."
--Paul Valéry, PIÈCES SUR L 'ART,
[Quoted from Paul Valery, *Aesthetics*, "The Conquest of Ubiquity," translated by Ralph Manheim, p. 225. Pantheon Books, Bollingen Series, New York, 1964.]