1. Sociology of Media (3) Mediation Formats Mechanical Reproduction (21.11.2007)

2. Outline Introduction to block 3: Mediation Formats The German Trajectory: Walter Benjamin: The Function of Art Historical Materialism The Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction Cult Value and Exhbition Value

3. Form and Format Media Form is part of the constellation of technology – alongside matter, use and know- how (Heidegger called it causa formalis) Mediation Format is the (historical, cultural, embodied) constellation of technological actions; it is that which ‘facilitates’ re-production, re- presentation and re-petition (all are forms of practices of imitation).

4. Two Sociologies (Latour) 1.Defines Society as a pre-ceding, external force (media are socially contextualized as instruments of social reproduction). 2.Problematizes society as that which needs to be explained (media are non- social forces that help to extend the ‘impact’ of social skills).

5. A sociology of media-assocations Fundamental Questions: 1.Who are the key mediators of these mediation formats? 2.What relationships and transactions exist between them? 3.How do their actions ‘bind’ matter, form, use and know-how into distinctive technologies?

6. A German Trajectory of Media Analysis: The Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist critical theory, social research, and philosophy. The grouping emerged at the Institute for Social Research (Institut für Sozialforschung) of the University of Frankfurt am Main in Germany when Max Horkheimer became the Institute's director in 1930. The term "Frankfurt School" is an informal term used to designate the thinkers affiliated with the Institute for Social Research or influenced by them. It is not the title of any institution, and the main thinkers of the Frankfurt School did not use the term to describe themselves (Wikipedia).neo-Marxistcritical theorysocial researchphilosophyInstitute for Social ResearchUniversity of Frankfurt am MainGermanyMax Horkheimer 1930 Associated with this ‘movement’ are, for example: –Theodore Adorno –Max Horkheimer –Jürgen Habermas –Herbert Marcuse –Leo Löwenthal –Erich Fromm –Walter Benjamin

7. Walter Benjamin (1892-1940)

8. Aura Aura is what gives a work of art its aesthetic value. Affirms the ‘genius’ of the artist which could only be encountered in the presence of a work of art. This idea of ‘presence’ made the experience of a work of art a highly specific, time-space contingent, privileged event. Aura does not stem from the properties of the object of art itself but from its ‘social attributes’, With mechanical reproduction, the balance shifted away from an emphasis on ‘presence’, i.e. on being in the (exclusive) vicinity of meaning-production, to that of ‘representation’ in terms of ‘reproduction’. The unique specificity of space and time disappears and perception and interpretation become displaced (and privatised); the location of aesthetic experience becomes everywhere and nowhere at the same time Technology is no longer connected to any artistic ability, craft or artisanship (Heidegger, 1977); values start to shift as a result away from the intrinsic and unique social qualities of the work of art, to its external qualities.

9. ‘The Cultural Industries: Enlightenment as Mass Deception’ (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1979) A criticism of the way in which mass media generate a mass culture based on deception and alienation (e.g. through standardisation and ‘obedience to the rhythm’); “Real life is becoming indistinguishable from the movies. The sound film, far surpassing the theatre of illusion, leaves no room for imagination or reflection on the part of the audience, who is [sic] unable to respond within the structure of the film, yet deviate from its precise detail without losing the thread of the story; hence the film forces its victims to equate it directly with reality” (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1979: 126).

10. Benjamin’s Historical Materialism Benjamin stressed that within the means with which mass culture was being forged, there were already openings for new, and perhaps more authentic and less alienating, sensibilities meaning is deeply intertwined with artefacts ‘perception’ plays a key role and is structured by the mode of production, which is also a mode of reproduction. This was directed against the then emergent ideology of fascism, which strongly relied on concepts of art such as ‘creativity and genius, eternal value and mystery’ (1969: 212).

11. The Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction The central thesis of ‘The Work of Art’ is that with mechanical reproduction, the nature of artistic representation shifts from one being based on genius, oriented towards maintaining authenticity (its unique existence or ‘presence’) and asserting the authority of its creation, to a ‘liquidation of the traditional value of the cultural heritage’ (ibid: 215).

12. Reflexive Modernization? the age of mechanical reproduction has brought something historically unique, namely that it has engendered, within the very essence of human sense-perception, the capacity to perceive its own historically contingent and conditioned being

13. The ordinary universality of art To pry an object from its shell, to destroy its aura, is the mark of a perception whose “sense of the universal quality of things” has increased to such a degree that it extracts it even from a unique object by means of reproduction (Benjamin, 1969: 217).

14. Art and Politics Mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual. To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility…. 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 (Benjamin, 1969: 218).

15. Cult Value and Exhibition Value Cult value is essentially maintained through ritual and remains place-bound, whereas exhibition value is a function of accessibility and is increased by mobility and displacement. The generation of exhibition value of a work of art is no longer dependent on its creation but becomes an effect of its consumption, thus constituting a market

16. Blurring of Production and Consumption The central role of consumption in determining the value of a work of art should not be understood in terms of arbitrary configurations of taste, but are effect of the particular ‘appeal’ of specific art forms to sense-perceptions.

17. The new Subject of Mediation By close-ups of the things around us, by focusing on hidden details of familiar objects, by exploring commonplace milieus under the ingenious guidance of the camera, the film, on the one hand, extends our comprehension of the necessities which rule our lives; on the other hand, it manages to assure us of an immense and unexpected field of action. (ibid: 229).