Art, Technology, and the Disappearance of Aura: Revisiting Walter Benjamin

Introduction

•       It is an essay written in 1936 by Walter Benjamin, which talks about the change in nature and purpose of art in terms of technology.

•       He introduces the concept of aura which characterizes personality and genuineness of a work of art.

•       Benjamin believes that this aura is killed through mechanical reproduction, including photography and film.

•       The essay also explores the issue of how art can lose its ritual value and acquire new social and political meanings.

•       It looks at the changes in human perception and culture brought about by mass production.

•       Benjamin is still considered to be fundamental to contemporary media, cultural, and art theory.

•       The essay was done in the 1930s, which was characterised by accelerated industrial change and technological transformation.

•       Photography and cinema were coming up as the dominant forms of culture, creating new experiences of reality.

•       Traditional artworks were also associated with religious or ritual settings and focused on uniqueness and worship.

•       Industrialization made art mass-produced and removed the connection between art and ritual.

•       Art was made available to people and not exclusive, but for mass participation.

•       Some backgrounds of the ideas of Benjamin include political turmoil, modernism, and fascism that arose in Europe.

The Concept of “Aura”

• Aura is the feeling of reality and originality that encloses a unique piece of art.
• It is related to the presence of the artwork in a certain time, place and in a certain cultural tradition.
• Mechanical reproduction reduces the aura in that it dissociates the artwork from its context.
• Copies do not have any physical and historical richness in them that gives originals their powers.
• The fact that we lose aura gives birth to another form of aural experience - more impersonal, timely, community-based.
• Benjamin thinks of this loss as a cultural degradation and as a fresh opportunity for social interaction.

Mechanical Reproduction and Its Effects

• Technological reproduction enables the duplication and distribution of works of art in an enormous manner.
• This process takes the work out of its original context, changing its meaning and purpose.
• Art comes to lose the value of ritual and spirituality and begins to acquire the value of exhibition and even political value.
• The individuality of the artwork is substituted with accessibility and the involvement of democracies.
• They are forced to see art in the mass media, advertising, and entertainment instead of in the sacred spaces.
• Having changed the consumption of art, reproduction also transformed the perception of reality itself.

The Role of Film and Photography

• The most prominent examples of mechanically reproduced forms of art are film and photography, as discussed by Benjamin.
• Photography is imprinted with reality, but is altered in its meaning by the form of framing and repetition.
• Film creates a new reality using editing, montage and controlled perspective.
• They both solve the puzzle of the aura of reproducibility rather than singularity.
• Cinema brings art to the citizens, and makes it humanly great.
• Technology as a mediating element in human perception through film: Intertwining illusion and social commentary.

Transformation of Human Perception

• The modern age educates people to see reality in terms of technology.
• The human eye is trained to live in expectation of constant change, movement and repetition.
• Film and photography transform people’s perception of space, time and experience.
• The focus is removed in favour of immediacy and visual stimulation.
• Viewing the artwork turns the viewer into an observer and not a passive admirer of art.
• Benjamin views this change as a wider change in the progress of contemporary consciousness.

Art and Politics

• Benjamin says that technological reproduction alters the political role of art.
• In traditional cultures, art had a religious, ritual, or aristocratic purpose.
• In the contemporary era, art turns out to be an instrument of political expression and mass influence.
• The images are reproducible, and this has enabled the ideologies to disseminate quickly through the media.
• The collective emotions and social awareness can be rallied by film, especially.
• The artists are subject to the political influence of art because it has the ability to reach the masses and to touch them.

The Artist and the Masses

• The artist loses his or her creator of individual works and becomes the producer of reductive media.
• The art production is made shared, which includes directors, editors and technicians.
• The audience ceases being a mere viewer, but is now a critic and an interpreter.
• And, as a part of mass culture, it is the boundary between the artist and the viewer that becomes less distinct.
• Democratisation of reproduction is used to create space where there are multifarious voices.
• But it also jeopardises taste homogeneity and artistic uniqueness.

Loss and Liberation

• Using auras as an example, loss of aura is an act of loss of culture and a move of freedom.
• Devoid of aura, art is no longer a prisoner to high culture and spiritualisation.
• The audience is liberated to perceive and interpret art in their normal lives.
• Art would be incorporated into political struggle, educational process and experience.
• Reproduction can make the masses think critically about society.
• This, according to Benjamin, is a revolutionary consciousness in art.

The Role of Technology

• Technology is more than just a tool; it is a power that creates a new perception and culture.
• The new media of photography, film, and digital media all change the definition of reality.
• Technological innovation alters the production, distribution and editing of art.
• The detachment of art by tradition in the mechanical process invents meanings.
• Technology reduces art to an exploitable, common cultural language.
• Benjamin has foreseen the current digital society of pictures and instantaneous access.

Cinematic Perception

• Cinema is a good example of how reproduction changes human perception.
• The camera is considered a mechanical eye, which opens up secret planes of reality.
• Filming structure: To construct new sensory experiences, film breaks time and space.
• The viewer sees the reality as something that is created, but not something that is provided.
• Such a new perception reflects the speed and the discontinuity of contemporary life.
• Cinema is a good example of how reproduction changes human perception.
• The camera is considered a mechanical eye, which opens up secret planes of reality.
• Filming structure: To construct new sensory experiences, film breaks time and space.
• The viewer sees the reality as something that is created, but not something that is provided.
• Such a new perception reflects the speed and the discontinuity of contemporary life.

Critique of Capitalism and Fascism

• Benjamin is also concerned about the fact that mass reproduction can be used against political power.
• Fascist regimes also manipulated feelings and imposed ideology with the aid of art and cinema.
• Capitalism transforms art into a commodity, where profit is the primary consideration, rather than significance.
• Mechanical image may enlighten or deceive, depending on how it is utilised.
• Benjamin urges against the aestheticisation of politics, but the politicisation of art.