Final Project Rough Excerpt

            The aura is loosely defined as the unique energy that seems to surround and emanate from a person or thing. In 1936, Walter Benjamin brought forth the idea in his essay, The Work of Art in the Mechanical Age of Reproduction, “that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura” (Benjamin, 221). Almost a century later, this idea of the “diminishing aura” caused by replication and mechanical reproduction is still relevant due to the progression of technology, and the extent to which it controls many of our lives today. Over the course of the semester, we have discussed extensively not only how technology today negatively effects the aura, but also how the potential future of technology may eventually be problematic in terms of maintaining originality.

            In the 1930’s, Benjamin’s focus was particularly on artwork and how mechanical reproduction through the use of cameras and printing depreciates the quality of the original piece’s aura. As stated previously, aura is tied to the uniqueness of a person or object. Therefore, the more accessible something becomes, the more aura diminishes. Benjamin highlights that, “The definition of the aura as a "unique phenomenon of a distance however close it may be" represents nothing but the formulation of the cult value of the work of art in categories of space and time perception. Distance is the opposite of closeness. The essentially distant object is the unapproachable one” (Benjamin, 243). The said “distance” is not referring to literal distance, but to the uniqueness or strangeness of something. When something is unique, it is usually also seen as unapproachable or unattainable, which in turn makes it more valuable. Benjamin’s point of view relating specifically to art is evident even today. For example, with the internet, you can simply google any famous work of art and you are presented with multiple images in seconds. In this example, the internet enables us to easily access exactly what we want but the effect of a reproduced image lacks the full experience one gets from the original. As John Berger pointed out in the 1970’s in his production of Ways of Seeing, “For the first time ever, images of art have become ephemeral, ubiquitous, insubstantial, available, valueless, free. They have entered the mainstream of life over which they no longer, in themselves have power… the means of reproduction are used nearly all the time to promote the illusion that nothing has changed except that the masses, thanks to reproduction, can now appreciate art as the cultured minority once did” Berger, 32). Berger emphasizes Benjamin’s idea that increased accessibility of artwork specifically causes the aura (or the authority as Berger puts it) to not have the same effect as it should. Another example of Benjamin’s specific point of view that we saw in class was Samantha Andrew’s Show and Tell Presentation about traveling to see the Mona Lisa in person. Given that this is one of the most famous paintings in the world, nearly everyone has seen a picture o it at some point in their life. But as Samantha said in her blog post, “we were immediately surprised to see how small [the Mona Lisa] really was. The pictures of it had made it seem large. The way everyone talked about it and admired it made it seem large. While it was smaller than we had expected, it was also much more incredible. You could see so many more details in the background as well as more of a 3D image instead of 2D… Actually being in the room with all these famous paintings is so much more intimate than simply looking at a picture of them.” (Andrews).

This is a rough excerpt from the beginning of my final paper. Given that my previous blog posts all correlate with the idea of the aura, I plan to implement those topics in support of Benjamin's idea.