The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility

Walter Benjamin

MARIO POSTIGO HERNNDEZ

Walter Benjamin says that even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is
lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the
place where it happens to be. This means that every work of art has something
exclusively characteristic that makes them unique, which is its context or 'aura', the
circumstances that make them as they are and not a different work of art. This 'aura' is
missing in the reproductions of a work of art, the technique of reproduction detaches
the reproduced object from the domain of tradition, because when they are made the
'aura' is ripped from the original one and only the material part remains, they may not
touch the actual work of art but its presence is always depreciated, the 'aura' can not
be reproduced.

As Benjamin says the presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of
authenticity. We can only understand and contemplate the uniqueness of the work of
art through its 'aura'. The singularity of a work of art is all the important characteristics
that are transmitted over the time. If the 'aura' is not present during the exhibition of a

work of art the viewers will not be able to entirely understand it. Benjamin says that
perceptions change with humanity's entire mode of existence. The way it is organized
and accomplished is determined by nature and historical and social circumstances.
The change of perception is the cause of the decay of the 'aura', the desire of people to
bring things closer spatially and humanly and to overcome the uniqueness of things by
accepting its reproduction. The reproduction, transitory and reproducible, differs from
the image, unique and permanent. The sense of the universal equality of things
extracts it even from a unique object by means of reproduction, what means that the
reproduction becomes more important than the original one.

Mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its dependence on ritual,
which represents its uniqueness, increasing the opportunities for the exhibition of
these works. This leads the viewer to understand the work of art in a different way
because mechanical reproduction changes the reaction of people toward art. The
problem appeared when the work of art was presented to the multitude because its
original aim was to be showed to a few, there was no way to the people to organize and
control themselves in their reception; what also affects people's understanding of a
work of art. The people seek distraction whereas art demands concentration from the
spectator in a common-place.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Walter Benjamin The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility