BA (Hons) Film and Screen Studies:Moving Image as an Art Form

Walter Benjamin’s critical ideas in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
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Introduction
Walter Benjamin is a German Jewish philosopher and theorist that writes influential essays in the 1930's usually about the perception of the human senses, aesthetics and materialism (Nelmes, 2012). One of Benjamin's famous essay is The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1935) where he expressed an elaborate criticism about mechanical reproduction and how it voids the value of art in its original sense and how it removes the “aura” of art in general. Benjamin's context of "aura" is purely based on the authenticity of aesthetic value that asserts the originality of an artwork that was lost due to the mass reproduction of art during the technological advancements of the 20th century (Benjamin, 1935).
Additionally, the essay Benjamin's essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1935) have about 15 parts where each part focuses about a specific topic about the decline of art due to the changes in technology where the ideas are centralized to about five themes. The first themes focused on the rise of printing and mechanical reproduction such as lithography technique and photography that caused significant change in the form of art. The second theme is focused on the aura of art and the lost element: authenticity, due to technical mass reproductions.
The perception of a single human's ability to sense the present time and space of art. The third theme of the essay is about contemporary perception of art that was adjusted to the thinking of the mass population rather than a single individual that further decayed the aura of art. The fourth theme was about the redefinition of art from tradition, rituals, and history to a form of political expression and future propaganda. The fifth theme is about the effects and problems of photography and film in capturing real world adventures of daily life but lacks the aura of visually representing the real world (Benjamin, 1935).
Although Walter Benjamin's essay argued the redefinition of art due to the advancement of society, art in relation to the developments of technology and contemporary cinema should be further studied since these ideas significantly changed the sense of art or the loss of art’s “aura” from traditional ritualistic history to contemporary political mass reproduction.
Art in Relation to Developments of Technology
In the effects of technology, Benjamin (1935), presented the place of art in changing the social-norm of a society into a more capitalist focused economy. Art was used as a socio-economic trigger to promote future developments to abuse the naivety of the working class and make them be more productive under the fascist propaganda. Benjamin traced the evolution of mechanical reproduction from manually tracing an art of a painter, to engraving, to lithography and to photography that eventually hastened the population to engage in mass production as directed by the manipulative bureaucrats to prepare in the engagement of war (Benjamin, 1935).
At the beginning of Benjamin's (1935) essay, he stated that artifacts made by men can always be recreated by other men. He implied the possibility of reproduction of any man-made material where the first artifact exists as the original while other subsequent copies will be classified as mere imitations that lack the essence of the original. It is imperative that there should be an authentic artefact first for an object to gain an authentic “aura” (Benjamin, 1935).
This is the traditional way of generating art where the unique technique of the artist is manifested to the presence of an artwork. Additionally, authenticity of art can also include the different ownership of art that contributes to the essence of time and space where its unique existence in a certain time and place gives history and further uniqueness to a piece of art (Benjamin, 1935).
If another artist is interested in making a copy, that artist need to painstakingly recreate his/her own version of the work which serve as an imitation; however, due to the technological advancement of printing, mechanical reproduction made plural copies of a certain object, thus, removing the essence a single unique existence of authentic art (Benjamin, 1935). Mass production of art changed the social value of work and art. As art changed in artistic style, essence, and aura it also changed the cultural taste of the public (Benjamin, 1935).
Mechanically reproduced art significantly affects the interaction of people with art in general (Benjamin, 1935). It can be seen as a progressive advancement for the betterment of society due to the improved visual communication for the people to easily understand the affection of other people. Additionally, the mass-produced visuals do not only reproduce copies but also reproduce emotions that can be aroused from within the audience depending on the social significance.
Added by Benjamin (1935), art no longer hold the doctrine of l'art pour l'art or “art for art's sake” to note that true value of art is intrinsic in the artwork itself rather than any other value outside the artwork. Imagine a painting, a single painting will not help the people acquire a conclusive action towards what the people should do as their social role (Benjamin, 1935). A traditional artwork constitutes a masterpiece that is unique where no other person, no matter how talented, can recreate or duplicate (Benjamin, 1935).
Another person can only take some elements but no one can reproduce the authenticity of a masterpiece (Benjamin, 1935). During the Era of Benjamin, however, the effects of war significantly affected the perception and the management of information of the public where most of the masses were fed by propaganda and national values to persuade the people to fight for their national values (Nelmes, 2012).
Due to this problem, the mass reproduction of art was made to support political beliefs of the sovereign and mass-produced political art that lost the authenticity of art in itself rather than traditional techniques and rituals (Benjamin, 1935). Instead, art became an effective political tool for the overconsumption of the masses (Benjamin, 1935). The political life of the people during that era used rapid technological rendering aesthetics not for the purposes of appreciating the value of art but to enhance the establishment of war (Benjamin, 1935).
Technology turned art as a form of expression for the fascists movement to conquer Europe (Benjamin, 1935). However, Benjamin (1935) argued that the use of art as a tool in politics is what created the fascist movements in Europe. Additionally, the efforts of influencing the pop...