Assignment Week Nine

In The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936), an essay by Walter Benjamin, Benjamin is quoted as saying "To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the authentic print makes no sense." 

In the new age of photography and digital art in the 1930's, Walter Benjamin, a German cultural critic was expressing his views on the pointlessness of an authentic copy where the reproductions are all exactly the same. Never before had any type of art been able to be copied exactly. Previously painting and sculpture had been the closest method to capturing reality, Both painting and sculpture were able to be copied but copies were never an exact replica of the original. But with the introduction of photography, all aura in authenticity was lost.


I personally agree with Benjamin, I think that authenticity was lost as art became no longer a one of a kind experience. If there are multiple copies of an authentic piece of art, how authentic really is it? If a person has seen copies, exact replicas, what would be so special, what aura would there really be, about seeing the original work? I think that back then and even now, reproduction has limited that value of real honest art.


In today's age of digital design and manufacture, I still think there is a role for the 'authentic', however little of a role that might be. Walter Benjamin saw this reproduction of art as a good thing; a way of 'giving to the masses', even back in the 1930's, I think that this is still applicable now. Products designed today are without a doubt manufactured for the the masses but a reproduction of art can still become authentic with the addition of something as simple as an artist signature. If a limited number of prints are made, owning a copy, even these days, can still give the slightest yet limited sense of aura knowing you have one of a only a few ever produced. Yet it is the history behind art, and especially the art before the introduction of photography, before digital design, that you know is authentic, that has the most aura and presence about it.