The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction 

"Walter Benjamin wrote, in the effort to describe a theory of art that would be "useful for the formulation of revolutionary demands in the politics of art". In the absence of any traditional, ritualistic value, art in the age of mechanical reproduction would inherently be based on the practice of politics."

 I have loaned the book (ILLUMINATIONS - Walter Benjamin) from the library, inside is his essay;
''The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction.''

I have also later realised the Electronic text version of this essay can be located on the internet (http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm)


In his essay, Benjamin discusses a shift in perception and its affects on film and photography in the twentieth century. He writes of the sense changes within humanity’s entire mode of existence; the way we look and see the visual work of art is different now and its consequences remain to be determined. Benjamin worried that the reproducibility of the art object, through prints and mass circulation, would destroy what he called it's "aura", associated with it's singularity. He thought that the  existence and circulation of copies would compromise the authenticity of the original. "although the original work is untouched, the quality of it's presence is always depreciated."


At the start of the essay there is a quote by Paul Valery which I found really gave me an insight to the essay and it's content;


                        "Our fine arts were developed, their types and uses were established in times very different from the present, by men whose power of action upon things was insignificant with ours. But the amazing growth of our techniques, the adaptability and precision they have attained, the ideas and habits they are creating, make it of the beautiful. In all the arts ther is a physical component which can no longer be considered of treated as it used to be, which cannot remain unaffected by our modern knowledge and power. For the last time immemorial. We must elect great innovations to transform itself and perhaps even bring about an amazing change in our very notion of art. " 
                                                   (Page 211 - Illuminations - Walter Benjamin, published by Pimlico 1999)


Some quotes from the book, sentences I liked or that seem pivotal in giving a bit of an insight into the text and what it discusses;


"In principle a work of art have always been reproducible. Man-made artefacts could always be imitated by me. Replicas were made by pupils in practice of their craft, by masters for diffusing their works, and finally, by third parties in the pursuit on gain. Mechanical reproduction of a work of art, however represents something new." (page 212)


"just as water, gas, and electricity are brought into our houses from far off to satisfy our needs in response to minimal effort, so we shall be supplied with visual or auditory images, which will appear and disappear at a simple movement of the hand, hardly more than a sign." (Page 213)


"For the study of this standard nothing is more revealing than the nature of the repercussions that these two different manifestations - the reproduction of works of art and the art of the film - have had on art in its traditional form." (Page 214)


"even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its present in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be." (Page 214)


"namely, the desire of contemporary masses to bring things 'close' spiritually and humanly, which is just as ardent as their bent toward overcoming the uniqueness of evert reality by accepting its reproduction. Everyday the urge grows stronger to get hold of an object at very close range by way of is likeness, its reproduction.' (Page 217)


"To pry an object from its shell, to destroy its aura is the mark of a perception whose 'sense of the universal equality of things' has increased to such a degree that is extracts it even from a unique object by means of reproduction." (page 217)


"In other words, the unique value of the authentic work of art has its basis in ritual, the location of its original use value." (Page 217)


"But the instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed. Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice - politics." (Page 218)


"incomparable significance if Atget............. said of him that he photographed them like the scenes of a crime. The scene of a crime, too, is deserted; it is photographed for the purpose of establishing evidence. With Atget, photographs became standard evidence for historical occurrences, and acquire a hidden political significance." (Page 220)