Laura Napolitano on Mechanical Reproduction

I found this article to be very interesting. It was hard to get through both times I read it (had to read it about 2 weeks ago for my media and culture class). I definitely agree with Benjamin's discussion about the "aura" changing or being completely lost once a work of art is reproduced. An example that was used in my other class is that of a musical performance. A concert by say, Dave Matthews Band, cannot be experienced more than once. The audio recording of their live performances cannot duplicate the sense of actually being there.

Similarly, works of art that were created hundreds, even thousands, of years ago have a different "aura" than they did when they were first created. Cave paintings, to use Benjamins example, were meant for the spirits or Gods that cavemen believed in at the time--something we can now only imagine. We can only compare our own current religious symbols to those paintings to only partially know the meaning of those paintings on the cave walls.

We may know what has happening at each point in history when a work of art was created, but we will never completely understand it because we haven't lived during the time period. Things are different in so many ways: culturally, socially, politically, economically, etc. Even today, a work of art has a different meaning to different audiences. An ancient Chinese painting has a completely different meaning to a Chinese citizen than it does to an American and vice versa. A Native American legend won't mean the same to someone of Cherokee descent as it does to someone of Flathead Salish descent, let alone to someone of a completely different culture like the Chinese.

Technology has made such an impression on art. In a sense, technology is an art in of itself. A still photography and films are works of art, but the subjects they portray do not do them justice. A documentary on Italy will never help us to completely understand what happened in the Colosseum or Pompeii thousands of years ago. Neither will a still photograph of the current city. Yes, both are art, but both are not an accurate representation of the culture as the subject. The "aura" has been changed.