Walter Benjamin The ”Aura” in modern time MAT103 – Final Presentation Niclas Jorvid Santa Barbara City College – Spring 2011

Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin Walter Benjamin was an intellectual who’s most known for his psychological and sociological novels reflecting different subjects of his time and presenting new theories. Born 15 July, 1892 in Berlin, German Empire and dead 26 September 1940 in Partbou, Catalonia, Spain fleeing from the Nazi and the second world war.

The Theory (Aura) The ”Aura” is one of Benjamins most known theories. In a section of his essay ”The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” he reflected upon the unique value of an object (aura) and described how art was changeing as the world was entering an era of Mechanical Reproduction. Some parts that reflects the Aura. Unique Value (mainly) Effort to create Non-mechanical creation Few copies or only one original Level of difficulty to re-create

Aura Reproduktion V S

Newcomers Back then Art was mostly connected to art forms like painting and sculpting. Walter Benjamin talked about photos and film as art with a low value of aura because of its reproduction.

New art of its time During his time, Benjamin had seen how new technology had created a new way of making art, this art however was easy to make and could be reproduced into thousands of copies, something that had earlier been impossible. ”Photography freed the hand of the most artistic functions which henceforth devolved only upon the eye looking into a lens. Since the eye percieves more swiftly than the hand can draw, the process of pictorial reproduction was accelerated so enormously that it could keep pace with speech.” – Walter Benjamin (”The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”)

Today Today these medias are used at such rate that the word ”Aura” can’t even be mentioned around it. Its used by everyone because its today easier to learn then riding a bike. But if we stop for a while, The ”Aura” is still among us, it has only changed its form. Some art have less of it than others but it’s there.

Modern Art Tattoos are a good example of an modern art form with a high value of aura. The effort put into making it and the eye for detail by a skilled tattoo artist is crucial to create something unique that also often has a high personal and unique value (aura).

Modern Art Another example is body painting, its becoming a new modern art style that haven’t been used before. Both art forms uses the body in different ways to express something and deliver a sense of something unique. However, body painting is also a good example that art forms can be used for the wrong purposes, this because its clear that most body paint models are women, this due to the simple fact of exposing the female body is popular among the male audience.

The truth The truth is that the aura and technology are connected and the more advanced our technology gets, the lower the Aura of many things seem to become due to all the reproduction. Another problem is also that for every year that pass, more and more things lose their aura because its used for the wrong purpose or just been done before. An example is how ”Mona Lisa” now used as a simple sales trick for profit because the painting of her being so popular. Popularity engcourages reproduction and is therefore becoming a modern enemy of the aura.

The fact However another reason why this is, is because we look at the word Art as still being something as of a painting. Our ways of making art has become revolutionary different, it’s just that this art has yet to be accepted as that kind of ”Art” (Da Vinci, Picasso, Rembrandt and so on).

Personal Reflection An idea Even with the aura being lowered by reproduction, I think there is still aura to modern work. This is because, even if many things today are reproduced and have been used before, new unique things pop-up now and then. The thing is that its not now only in Art as in paintings and sculpting. But also in...

Personal Reflection...modern Art like 3D and computer graphics. Every year, digital artists all over the world spend thousand of hours creating modern Art. Art has just changed from what it used to be. The problem is that it hasn’t had its time of ageing yet, also not everyone is used to this new Art form and can’t therefore embrace it. As with Art from earlier eras, there will always be reproduction along the way, we just have to let it have its time and take a deeper look into it, to be able to see the aura in our modern form of Art.

Personal Reflection Another fact is that The ”Aura” is starting to come up in amazing copies of Art (with a big twist to the word ”copy”), or just new ways of making art. What I mean by this is that artists today have due to so many things already being made before, developed a great sense for innovation.

The End Niclas Jorvid Santa Barbara City College – Spring 2011