DSDN 171 BLOG ASSIGNMENT 6

Walter Benjamin argued “To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the authentic print makes no sense.” This means that he thought the fading of aura/ authenticity was a good, as it gave power to the ‘masses of people’. He wanted art/design to become more political so that people could have the same rights rather than only the hierarchy of the population seeing these pieces of art that have ‘aura’.

I both agree and disagree with Benjamin‘s argument. Technology has increased so much that in a sense aura has been taken away from most modern designs. Today we are able to see objects from other countries on the internet or through any media form, where as in the 18^th century media was seen as a form of truth and changed the way people saw the world. So in this sense I find Benjamin’s argument true because of all this technology and because we download a copy of an image or a song by the click of a button some aspects of aura has been taken out of these works of art and design without having to “ask for the authentic print”.

I also disagree with his argument because I think that aura can be built up with how popular a piece of design or art is. The popularity creates a sense of aura because of how much people want to see it from all the attention it is getting. I think that an aura can be felt within architecture for example the pyramids in Egypt. These ancient pieces of architecture are world famous and even though everyone knows what they look there is still a sense of aura when you are in the presence of the pyramids.

Therefore I think that media has not taken away aura but has given the chance for people to get the sense of aura all around the world from images.

Petty, M, M.( 2011), Lecture 6 Modern Vision, Victoria University ,Te aro Campus