Walter Benjamin 1892 1940 The Work of Art

Walter Benjamin (1892 -1940) The Work of Art in the Age of its Mechanical Reproduction Some Concepts

Technology and culture • C. P. Snow: The Two Cultures (1959) – Science vs Arts and humanities • Digital media – Cultural technology • Walter Benjamin – Principal theorist of the effect of technology on culture

Conceptual background • Superstructure: Culture (science, art, religion) • Substructure: Economy (work, production, market) • Effect of substructure on superstructure

Original • Presence of the work itself in time and space • Unique existence at the place where it happens to be • The presence of the original is the presupposition of the concept of authenticity

Ways of reproduction • Manual reproduction – Imitations, forgeries – Individual works • Technical reproduction – Photography, film, – Mass production

Contrasting qualities • Original – Uniqueness and permanence • Technical reproduction – Plurality and transitoriness

“Aura” of the work of art • What is left when the work is technologically reproduced – Presence of the work of art itself as a unique and authentic object • Unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be. . .

Two types of values • “Works of art are received and valued on different planes. Two polar types stand out; with one, the accent is on the cult value; with the other, on the exhibition value of the work. ”

Cult value • The artwork as a precious object • The existance of the work is more important than access and visibility • Related to an older stage of society and production • Example: The Icon.

Exhibition value • The more that see the object/image, the better • Example: An advertisment

Effect of mass reproduction • Technical reproduction detaches the work of art from its traditional context and from traditional ways of seeing • Introduces the image in any context and reactivates the object reproduced • The “aura” vanishes • Exhibition value takes precedence over cult value

Technologically reproducible art An art that is transmitted to the masses in the form of technologically produced works (either copies or works created by means of technological reproduction) presented as a marchandise intended for consumption Fulfills the same function in a new way

Criteria • Can many people enjoy the work simultaneously? • Together or each in his own place with the same work? • Two examples: paintings and films

Paintings • • • Quiet contemplation Association of ideas Solitude Reflective criticism Concentration

Films • No time for contemplation because of the movement • Striking effects • The image imposes itself on the spectator • Watch together with the mass • Fusion of visual pleasure and reflective criticism • Amusement and consumption

Social conditions of painting • Related to an older stage of society (cf. frescoes, oil paintings) • Cult value dominant • Even open and democratic galleries do not change the way we look at paintings

But architecture • Utility and artistic value • Nothing that corresponds to visual contemplation (of paintings) in architecture (public art)

Film, photography and psychoanalysis • Show us what we are not conscious of • Changes our visual perception • Expands our ways of seeing things – close-up – slow-motion – blow-up

Consuming art as amusement • Art consumption in the form of amusement (contrary to Collingwood’s idea of art proper) • Impact on the spectator/consumptor • Not the quality of the work itself as an object • Related to the problematic of taste

Art and ethics/politics • Questions raised by the fascist aesthetication of politics – The aesthetics of war put the idea of art as an autonomous sphere in question – Relates it again to ethics and politics – There is no pure aesthetic • Answered by the politisation of aesthetics by the communists (WB and Brecht)

Sequel • The Wagnerian Gesammtkunstwerk – Opera – Film • The state as a total work of art – Hitler – Stalin