Abstracting Walter Benjamin

Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technical Reproducibility (USA: Harvard College, 2008)

In The Work of Art in the Age of its Technical Reproducibility, Walter Benjamin is exploring the impact of reproduction on the tradition of art. Specifically focusing on the impact of film, Benjamin seeks to deconstruct film as a cultural product with the capacity to transform our understanding and relationship to traditional art values. Benjamin’s critique is essentially a Marxist analysis as he looks for the moment in the material world where Marxist idealism is made manifest.

Benjamin beings his essay pledging allegiance to a Marxist perspective and subsequently aligns the developmental tendencies of artistic production in unison with the politics of aesthetics. He goes onto describe the possibility of reproduction from the woodcut to the lithograph and finally to its ultimate manifestation in film. Through this Benjamin questions the impact of reproduction on the authenticity of an artwork claiming that through reproduction the aura surrounding a work of art is degraded and subsequently emancipated. Investigating the tradition of art Benjamin considers the role of cult value and the exhibition value of artworks as they are assimilated into models of mass distribution. Further models of authenticity are reviewed as the relationship between the viewer/ author are challenged as modes of production evolve and art is freed from place and ritual challenging traditional bourgeois structures of power.

Key concepts central to this essay include:
1. The Aura of an Artwork – Refers to the sense of wonderment or awe in the presence of the original work of art. This also includes the unique characteristics including historical qualities relating to the idea of tradition, lineage of ownership.
2. Cult/ Exhibition Value – Cult value refers to the value assigned to the artist and the aura surrounding a work of art. Exhibition value is that which sees the transformation of the work of art in its artistic function in relation to its ability to be exhibited. Benjamin’s argument is that by using technological means of reproduction we are creating a new means of production which alters both the traditional relationship between the cult/ exhibition value of art.

Benjamin does not employ any specific content analysis (interviews etc) but rather traces significant changes in perception as a result of technical reproducibility of images and its consequent effect of artistic functions within a cultural context. Though he sites various authors to quantify his argument, this essay seems to be more a lineage of thought. By deconstructing the superstructure of meaning in relation to cinema (from a historical perspective of linear development in terms of the role of imagery in society) Benjamin concludes that technology ultimately pulls the image out of history and thus democratizes it.

The way in which this essay is written Benjamin’s viewpoint seems somewhat ambiguous. It is difficult to assign his moral position which consequently made it difficult for me to define my own position.

Walter Benjamin and the The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technical Reproducibility has been extremely influential in the field of cultural/ media theory. This essay is fundamental to the understanding of the current field of enquiry and has given me a solid understanding of the theoretical perspective on which media theory is based.