Chris Thomas 9/22 Reproduction

I figured I would blog both the reading and the dance performance together, so here it goes! To begin with, I thought the dance performance was interesting. It was able to blend to mediums together in a unique and unifying way. Normally we take dance in as both sound, sight, and rhythm, but now we add a picturesque quality to the dancing. We focus on not only the movement, but the artistic value of the scene upon which they are dancing on. That and the fact that the performance is based on current images, it makes the performance unique in many ways.

Now, with the reading, Benjamin is making the argument that with mass reproduction the core value of art is depreciated. This reminds me of a book we read in my Media Arts class, in which the author makes the same sort of argument. He states that we apply meanings to art. Now a days, we usually appreciate a piece based on what it is, or what it's history is; not necessarily for its intrinsic beauty. While this isn't the same argument Benjamin makes, it is along the same lines. Since the ability of work to be mass reproduced, art loses a sense of creative ownership. Whom is now the artist? The creator, or the machine that created it? We also lose a sense of context, with mass reproduction. One can no longer feel what the piece is about in its true nature, one only sees it as they wish to see it.

But, I actually think that this has allowed art to move in a new direction. Art over the past hundred years, has become more subjective. The viewer can now look at art in any setting, without any previous knowledge about the piece, and make their own subjective interpretation of the meaning of that particular piece. We no longer need to understand context, for the viewer makes it for themselves. I think art has also moved in this direction though. If we look at Renaissance painting, we can tell what is going on because the painting is clear and concise, but the viewer barely adds their own interpretation to the work. However, as art moved into abstracter territory, like impressionism, cubism, post modernism, the painting's meaning became more vague; and this allowed for art to be subjective. This all compiles into a more viewer friendly, relativistic art world though, but one I can enjoy more than classical painting.