The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Reading

The withering of an aura is bad. Despite the artist's intentions, if the aura is destroyed the value of the art is as well. Not just because of the uniqueness of the object is disregarded but because the essential problem stated in the beginning would be aggravated even moreso; the exploitation of the proletariat. The more an aura withers the more it's memory is forgotten and the more we try to fill our consciousness with more reproductions that distance us from an "original." The value of an aura is a fraction of the value of the piece, as being in the presence of the original and only supersedes that of a copy. It is also unique to the object it is attached to yet it relates to the distance the art is to the viewer- the more reproductions of an object the higher the aura but the lower the value of the object.


A film's aura- let's use Vormittagsspuk, the aura is encompassing illusions and . The illusions are created with various methods, but the film is mostly confronting the viewer with numerous effects and transitions that are challenging our perception- because of this the aura is fleeting- as cuts are reproduced numerous times as well as juxtaposed with different cuts repeatedly. Yet, throughout the piece there are many cuts that are very beautiful but are only shown once. The quality is really in these cuts and the rarity of them. The originality and aura is procured from the shots being reproduced- if they weren't there, the piece wouldn't be as challenging and interesting. What Hans Richter has done is utilize the substance and presence of the original between many reproductions.

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Some Good Quotes for later:

“The film has not yet realized its true meaning, its real possibilities. . . these consist in

its unique faculty to express by natural means and with incomparable persuasiveness all that is fairylike,

marvelous, supernatural.”

"This situation might also be characterized as follows: for the first time—and this is the effect of the film—man has to operate with his whole living person, yet forgoing its aura. For aura is tied to his presence; there can be no replica of it."

"Approached in this fashion the film might represent an incomparable means of expression. Only the most high-minded persons, in the most perfect and mysterious moments of their lives, should be allowed to enter its ambience."

"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 it extracts it even from a unique object by means of reproduction."

"Every day the urge grows stronger to get hold of an object at very close range by way of its likeness, its reproduction"

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The objects ready-made status isn't veiled or hidden at all- but is transformed. The hats are not just hats- they are floating hats that move in unison. The clocks are not just clocks- they are faster and are veiled over top each other. These reproductions are seen as unique because they have been transformed in some way.