The Critical Mind and the Mechanical Reproduction of the Work of Art

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.

One thought on “The Critical Mind and the Mechanical Reproduction of the Work of Art

  • December 18, 2021 at 12:16 pm
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    I agree with you. Mechanical reproduction of art detaches it from its origin.

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