« Bill Viola Reading | Main | Manipulated Images »
September 25, 2005
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
"The equipment-free aspect of reality here has become the height of artifice; the sight of immediate reality has become an orchid in the land of technology."
-- Walter Benjamin
In his essay, Benjamin densely touches upon the current evolution of art with respect to its definition, authenticity and means of production. Art isn't necessarily diminished by new technology and mass production as much at it is irrevocably altered. Several things of interest:
To be art as art with it's wholeness and intention intact, art must be considered with its whole aura, the time in which it was created as well as the physical aging that has occurred to the art as it passes through time. This view of art is bound to an art that is a unique physical manifestation, created in a certain time. Art which cannot be created in any other way or at any other time.
Art that can be mass produced (films) or the art of ideas (conceptual) has no place in this way of thinking. In some ways art that is pure idea has always existed and will always exist. It cannot be bound to a particular time, only a particular interpretation relative to a time and a zeitgeist.
Writing a letter to the editor allows anyone to voice their opinion in a newspaper, everyone has now become a writer. The craft of writing or the granting of a voice is no longer the domain of a group of individuals deemed writers. Everyone has a voice. This shift that Banjamin highlights is the initial seed of the interactive media that has become part of our popular culture. Stanislavski tells us that because we are human we all are actors, we all can convey the human experience. iMovie encourages all of us to be film makers, we all have a story to tell. Blogging software invites us to all be writers. All the lines have been crossed and criss crossed, the boundaries between professional and amatuer, between artist and audience have broken down.
Finally, it's interesting to note that art in the age of mechanical reproduction begets new art. Technology allows us to slow down, deconstruct and then reassemble anew. Technology also allows for the construction of a form before the art. A photograph may be the art, the negative being the tool used to construct the art. Alternatively, in art as process, the negative becomes the art and photograph becomes an afterthought. Technology, in creating space between the details, creates possibilities.
Posted by mb2811 at September 25, 2005 09:02 PM