Blog Post #5- Stephanie Clinch

As the semester approaches its end, I thought it would be nice to share with you all what I collected from this course. I wanted to share a brief outline of what my final project contains and how I interpreted and included different concepts from various sections of the class to accomplish this. My final project consists of two parts: a collaboration with our classmate Tara Serena and an analysis of different components from the course.

For the first part, Tara and I are incorporating a small experiment we performed with what we have read throughout the course of this class and what we have noticed in outside sources throughout the semester. We performed an experiment pertaining to the perception of the aura and how it is a major influence in how we perceive people and things. We will both branch out into different subtopics using this experiment. We conducted an experiment to see if people can be identified solely on their aura.

              Then, we both have a part II that incorporates the results of the experiment into our analysis. For my final project, I am using The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin. I am using this source to introduce my argument that there is a different in doubles and replicas that can be distinguished using aura. The results that were collected from part I of my project tie into this concept. The other in-class source that I am using in my project is Karel Čapek’s R.U.R, which I am using to introduce the idea of clones and artificial beings. This source allows me to explain how the lack of aura makes them less human than the authentic being.

For the first of my two outside sources I am using a film called The Prestige. This film ties into what is stated in R.U.R about replicas and aura, and goes beyond it by providing another instance where doubles exist. The Prestige, which I briefly explained in my last blog post, is used to explain the difference between doubles and replicas and how this all ties into aura. For my fourth source I am referencing an episode of The Twilight Zone, “I Sing the Body Electric” (Season 3, Episode 35). In this case, it is unknown whether the replacement is human or a robot or perhaps a hybrid, but my analysis of the aura disputes this.

 In conclusion, the primary argument in my final project is that people can be distinguished using aura. Furthermore, there can be a distinction made between people (including doubles) and replicas (or clones) using the same principle of aura. The two sources from class—The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin and R.U.R by Karel Čapek—introduce and enhance my arguments formed around the ideas introduced by The Prestige and The Twilight Zone “I Sing the Body Electric” (Season 3, Episode 35). The combination of all these sources creates and supports my argument that aura is the main component in distinguishing between things in general.