The reproduction of the work of art demolished or erased the aura of the real art itself. For example, Paintings were rarely found but highly appreciated as divinely inspired. A painting could have bunch of meanings in the past. One may spend hours pondering to get the meaning out of it. Nowadays, photoshops are considered as art for all what is artistic is new. However, these pictures serve a personal, political meaning, or sometimes they are meaningless serving the call of distraction.

The role of art before the age of reproduction was meant to develop the critical abilities of the human mind through attempts to generate the possible meaning out of arts. Nowadays, with the invention of technologies, television as a case, the creativity of the human mind is bound to summarizing events. Visual technology break the imaginative part of the humans. People were used to create an imagination out of staring at natural things, nature, or arts. However, nowadays, people are uncapable of creating that imaginative world because they are already filled with technological images, particularly, they developed a naturalized imagination. Arts, as Benjamin predicted in his essay, became in the hands of the materialists. Thus, it is no longer serving the intellectual part, but it is a means of consumerism. Hence, People count as robots, for they are passively responding to technology that serves the reproduction of art.

 

Reproduction of mechanisms changes to technology has vastly affected all aspects of life from how we lived in the past to how today’s society lives; for example, when one needed to know information, it came by “word of mouth.”

Even telling time of day was done by looking at your shadow and measuring how far it falls behind the body while the sun is up.

The evolution of mechanisms has reshaped the world significantly as technology changes how society lives, learns, works, and travels.

Now one can sit and watch what is going on worldwide without moving; the digital world makes it possible.

Japan is known for the rapid advance in technology after the second world war; the advancement in electronic example vehicles, robotics, video games medical devices are some of the few developments in technology.

People develop talent and education to aid them in operating the impact of the changes.

Society can now use the digital system to do everything. The internet provides us with all the information ready at hand with just one click away.

For a computer, this device has come a long way from occupying a room because of its enormous size to the extent that it can be carried around with one hand and fit on one’s lap.

Society can always stay in touch with family, friends, and work no matter their location, and you can still communicate instantly. People can now explore these changes in the digital world, from a house phone to smartphones from computers to tablets.

Technology connectivity aids us to do many things anytime, anywhere. It helps us to do online and banking shopping. Digital technology makes it possible always to have ready access to information.

To compare changes of current technology and its uses by how it has been in the past. The digital system has vastly changed how we live today.

Below is a picture of the first computer and is the massive size in comparison to

A laptop that is much smaller in size and has more capabilities.

In the earliest time, before electromagnetic telephones came about, mechanical and acoustic devices were used for transmitting speech and music.

This device was based on sound transmission. The sound was transmitted by mechanical vibration.

Things and time moved quickly, the digital world exploded, and the telephone emerged to a successive improvement—the idea to communicate electronically with the invention of cell phones.

They have given credits for another successful vision with a mooted idea of mechanical reproduction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Benjamin’s essay, mechanical reproduction is perceived as a powerful agent that arouses through the birth of photography and film as brands of technology. The latter manages to change the role of art by detaching it from its aura, authenticity, and tradition . These three aspects that feature an artistic work represents its quality and feeling which can be grasped only by being an eye-witness of its here-and-now, and which are deconstructed by means of the replication and manipulation of mechanical reproduction.

Benjamin discusses the transition which an artistic work undergoes by means of replication which moves an artwork from the notion of cult value to the notion of exhibition value. An artistic work is no longer reserved from the eyes of its audience; the latter easily access to art through some of the most powerful agents of technology: TV screens, smart phones, computers, and other gadgets. These devices pull art from a tiny show room and  push it to a universal stage; they change it from an object of reservation and concentration with a limited access from its audience to an object of advertisement and distraction with an unlimited access from its audience. Furthermore, mechanical reproduction manages to connect art with politics. Aesthetics which stands for the sublimity of art is attached to some of the political events, particularly war. The latter, through the lenses of the camera, is portrayed as an artistic work that no longer brings terror to the hearts of its audience, but it only fills them with joy and thriller.

Walter Benjamin’s most influential essay, ” The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”,  is an essay of cultural criticism that centres primarily on the theory of art and the notion of aura. Benjamin believes that the term of aura derives from the authenticity of an original work of art. Aura is an effect of a work of art being uniquely present both in time and space. Benjamin argues that authenticity cannot be reproduced, because the essence of work, or let’s say the uniqueness of the aura disappears with reproduction. For him, the reproduction of works of art in modern times leads to the loss of originality in the aesthetic experience. Thus, it must be concluded that the aura has disappeared with the emergence of the mechanical reproduction age because art has become reproducible. For instance, there is a huge difference between buying a painting as a poster and staring at an original work of art in a gallery, and that is exactly what Benjamin is trying to shed light on.

In addition to that, despite the fact that Benjamin talks about photography, he discusses it so briefly, because his major argument focuses on film as a mode of mechanical reproduction. According to Benjamin, the film has no aura, because the film actor does not respond to an audience. The film eradicates the ritual practices and forces the viewers into unprecedented practices. It compels modern habits of mind and disconnects people from the ritualistic reverence of art for art’s sake. In this way, the art of film is politicized. To bring my argument to an end, we can say that media ( film, photography)  is altering the nature of human perception in a great way.

“The Work of  Art in the Age of its Technological Reproductivity” By Walter Benjamin is one of the essays that seems to have a perennial life. It is considered as a major work in the history of modern aesthetic and political criticism. In his essay, Benjamin maintains that mechanical reproduction liquidates the auratic experience. However, Benjamin doesn’t lament the loss of the aura but rather celebrates it. Benjamin focuses mainly on photography and film as forms independent of exhibition value, as they provide a plurality of copies to a unique existence. Both photography and films, for Benjamin, can be used to politicize art or aestheticize politics. To put it simply, they can be used either as a revolutionary tool for the proletariat to voice their concerns and interests or as a dangerous force put into the service of fascism. It is true that the mediascape of Benjamin’s era is different from now. Currently, we have gone beyond the advent of the camera into virtual technologies and social media platforms. Still, Benjamin’s ideas remain relevant to today’s studies. A reading of his essay awakens the reader to the different roles media can play. Many now use media platforms to voice their opinions and thoughts. It gives a voice to certain individuals who are unable to express their opinion or are scared of  expressing their views and showing the world what they have to say and what they can offer. People who are sometimes called ‘low class citizens’ were deprived in the past of expressing  their views when there was an injustice done unto them, but now they could speak their minds and share it on Facebook, Twitter and so on. Still, we can’t overlook the fact nowadays media firms are owned by the government or private families. In fact, the government ownership of media is universally associated with less freedom, fewer economic and political rights and inferior social outcomes. In the light of what has been said, Benjamin proves to be of paramount importance to the understanding of how technological development is creating a new reality for the masses. 

Walter Benjamin’s work of art in the age of mechanical production represents art nowadays and how it lost its purity in the period of capitalism. Duplicating machines, photography, and the production of films are new forms of art made by the human being to reflect what is in society. The mechanical production of art represents something new. It comes with a new vision. Art in the past had a uniqueness. Uniqueness gives the art authority and aura. Art in the past was for religious and spiritual services. It was pure, unique, and authoritative.  When we reproduce art, it lost its aura and authority. We start producing art just because we have to produce it without any meaningful purposes. Today’s art is used for political services. capitalists use films to transfer ideas and ideologies to change and affect societies negatively. Art has lost its aura that makes the work unique.

With the invention of cell phones and the digital camera, Art lost its purity. Technology has allowed us to share the form of arts and take pictures of paintings. Our way of evaluating or seeing art has changed. Art lost its aura, and we lost the feeling of enjoying art. It becomes something normal like any visual thing. Artists become afraid of sharing their works to not be shared to not lose their aura and purity. Images become able to be reproduced mechanically and industrially. Art becomes like any product, and we should consume it without enjoying its aura.

Walter Benjamin discusses that mechanical reproduction introduced an entirely new and revolutionary change in the experience of the artwork. Benjamin’s argument is that all art loses its aura when it can be copied. A work of art that is copied is cut off from its original position, place, and the tradition because its uniqueness is lost when something is reproduced. I agree with Benjamin when he said mechanical reproduction can change the role of an art in society. With mechanical reproduction, which appears in its most radical forms in film and photography, millions of images of an original are circulated, all of which lack the “authentic” aura of their source. For example, people nowadays use digital technology such as cell phones or cameras to edit images from the original and give it a new look.

Benjamin’s whole notion was that mechanical reproduction changed the role of art in society due to the fact of individuals being able to duplicate or alter art. Instagram demonstrates what Benjamin is saying because it shows an unrealistic world. Society now is so focused on filters, alterations, photoshopping ect. There is too much altering on instagram that a majority of the time the photo that was posted  looks completely different from the original. Instagram has become this space where the majority of users can’t post a picture without altering or changing something in their image. An example would be someone taking a picture and photoshopping their picture to look slimmer. Photography back then didn’t have that, there was no such thing as photoshopping a photo to look lean or slim. That was the beauty of art, it was admirable there was no need for changes. Benjamin’s main point being that Mechanical reproduction will change the real art. Where a painting was made no one can alter it or people put a filter on it. Real art happens without the extra touch ups. Now people can go to the museum and take a picture of an original painting on their phone but will still alter it and change the picture to their liking. This takes away from the real artist that did the painting. Cameras on iphone’s for example have the option to alter images and videos, why can’t we as a society just be contempt with just the picture we took. Our understanding of art is shifting to what we believe needs to be perfection for society to love. For instance a painter like Da Vinci could go outside and paint the sky as he sees it, without altering anything. Then an individual with a phone camera can take the picture of the sky and alter it to their liking by putting filters or changing the brightness or exposure ect. Now if I see Da Vinci’s painting and the photo after it being altered I could lean into the altered photo because  it looks cooler, it caught my eye. This is what Benjamin is trying to say, the real art is being pushed away to mechanical art. Society is focused on art that is altered now instead of authentic art.