Benjamin: Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Walter Benjamin wrote this piece in the 1930's, a time when new technologies, like the photograph and the cinema, were gaining popularity and an alarming rate. Benjamin worried about the effects these technologies would have on the culture of art, specifically on how we perceive and think about an original work. He stated, "the presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity" (39), meaning that we, as the audience, become obsessed with this concept of authenticity. With the technology to flawlessly reproduce an artwork, the original becomes important, not because of its artistic expression, but rather its monetary value.

This idea reminds me of when I went to China Town in New York City. On every street corner, there were four or five people trying to shuttle me into their store to look at knock-offs of designer purses, wallets, sungrasses, jewelry, watches, etc. It was obvious that some of the cheaper bags were made with substandard materials, which therefore effected the price, but some of the better quality knock-offs seemed to be nearly identical to an authentic designer bag. Consumers are willing to pay thousands of dollars for a real designer bag because it is name-brand and authentic, even though the knock-off version looks almost exactly the same for a fraction of the cost.



In class, Dr. Cummings passed around a recent news article from the Orlando Seminole about visitors coming from far and wide to see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre in Paris. Being arguably the best known and most visited work of art in the world, one would think that when people get the chance to see the Mona Lisa in person, they would admire the individual brush strokes and small details that you would only truly be able to notice in person. However, as stated in the article, visitors of the Mona Lisa are more concerned with capturing the moment with a good photo rather than living the moment and admiring the actual painting. This makes me wonder if people who take photos the Mona Lisa do so in order to document the experience for their own personal memory, or if they take pictures to show their friends and family that they saw the Mona Lisa, as if it were a check off their bucket list.