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MAT103 - Walter Benjamin – About Aura |
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“...that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art.” |
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Walter Benjamin Quotes |
Artwork |
Aura |
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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. Of course, the history of a work of art encompasses more than this. The history of the “Mona Lisa,” for instance, encompasses the kind and number of its copies made in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. |
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The Mona Lisa Leonardo DaVinci did fewer than 20 surviving paintings. This painting has high cult value and has been forged and sold many times. To see the original requires traveling to Paris and purchasing a ticket to the Louvre Museum. The original has high aura.
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The uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from its being embedded in the fabric of tradition. This tradition itself is thoroughly alive and extremely changeable. An ancient statue of Venus, for example, stood in a different traditional context with the Greeks, who made it an object of veneration, than with the clerics of the Middle Ages, who viewed it as an ominous idol. |
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Venus de Milo Now located in the Louvre Museum in Paris France this marble statue’s aura has changed from a goddess venerated by the Greeks (high aura) to a pornographic idol of the middle ages to an iconic fragment of the past of value mostly to art historians. The original has high aura. |
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To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the ‘authentic’ print makes no sense. |
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Photographic Negative The original authentic photo negative image has no aura and no artistic value except for its ability to be used to make prints. High potential exhibition value. High forensic, documentary value. |
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In photography, exhibition value begins to displace cult value all along the line.
...photographs become standard evidence for historical occurrences, and acquire a hidden political significance.
The nineteenth-century dispute as to the artistic value of painting versus photography today seems devious and confused. |
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Photographic Print This color print from the negative has no aura because it can be reproduced perfectly in any size required. High exhibition value. High political value. |
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The artistic performance of a stage actor is definitely presented to the public by the actor in person. For aura is tied to his presence; there can be no replica of it. The aura which, on the stage, emanates from Macbeth, cannot be separated for the spectators from that of the actor. |
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Theater Its aura is rooted in that you have to “be there” in time and space and the actors are performing directly for you. |
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The audience’s identification with the actor is really an identification with the camera. The cult of the movie star, fostered by the money of the film industry, preserves not the unique aura of the person but the “spell of the personality,” |
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Film The actor is performing for the camera.
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MAT103 - Walter Benjamin – About Aura |
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