Skip to main content

Mechanical Reproduction in the Arts



      A paper written by Walter Benjamin titled The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction discusses the impacts on art with the advent of technologies such as the camera. The impacts of these forms of art, like photography and movies, are all from a form of recreation Benjamin dubs Mechanical Reproduction. Any creation of man has always been reproducible, but to varying degrees of difficulty. Before the creation of the camera, works of art would have had to been recreated by hand which took a lot of time and effort and the recreations themselves would be slightly different from the original as is the nature of human error. With technologies like the camera, works
of art can be quickly captured and are often presented the mechanically produced copy instead of the original work.Benjamin states that there are many negatives to this method of exhibition of artwork as many things are lost when technology is used to present works of art that are not inherently produced with technology. What is lost are the feelings and original intent in the work as technology cannot quite copy all of the emotions that are presented when a work of art is viewed in person. Technology has taken a prominent place in our daily lives, and some of the points that Benjamin made almost 100 years ago are still meaningful today. 
      The biggest loss when something is reproduced using technology, is that special feeling that is experienced when something original is viewed in person, Benjamin refers to this as an aura. I have personally experienced this effect quite recently with a trip to the local art museum. For a cinema production class I am taking this fall, we were to study an abstract work of art. I began the process by going through the museum's catalog and looking at the artwork that was on display. When I made my choice, I spent about thirty minutes studying the work on my computer, as we were required to study the work for an hour straight in person the next day. To be honest, the work did not seem that impressive on the computer, but this changed when I saw the work in person. The computer monitor had failed to reproduce all of the textures and colors that the original painting had to display. The original painting is around the size of a piece of printer paper, but had a much larger impact than it had when blown up in size on my computer monitor, this work was called Villas for Marionettes. 
      Other than photography, Benjamin also discussed how film was having an impact on the viewer's experience. He discusses how a camera effects the viewers experience and interaction with actors on stage. Rather than viewers watching the actor directly, it is the camera that is watching the actor, and the viewer is limited to the perspective the camera and the cameraman captured, nothing more and nothing less. This has a large impact on what the viewer is able to experience. The camera man may choose to take close up shots of a particular actor on stage and not the stage as a whole, this limits what the viewer can see and directs their experience of the production. This can be a good thing, as it allows the director to better control the viewer's attention. However, the positives of this do not seem to outweigh the negatives. The user is constricted in their freedoms, and in some forms of art this does not allow them to include their own experiences into the work and draw their own meanings from a work of art. This simply ruins some forms of art, such as abstract artworks as it is the creators intention for viewers to put their own meanings into the work. The viewer is reduced to a camera, limited to the dictation of the cameraman and not allowed to view the work on their own, removing the sense of wonder many live performances are able to elicit in their audiences. 
      Technology can be a very powerful tool as it can allow works of art to be presented to those who would otherwise not be able to experience these works. It is just very important for the viewers of these recreations to be aware of what can be lost when works are captured using technology. It is a game of balance, and must be played as such. 

Villas for Marionettes (Villen für Marionetten): 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Art of Game Design: Chapters 6 and 7

    The Art of Game Design  continues to be an intriguing read that surprises me in new ways with each chapter. Chapter 6 focuses on the importance that theme has on games and how theme should be treated in a game's design. Theme isn't just something that the player learns from the game, it is the thought or idea that the game should try to represent in every possible way it can. This chapter covers two forms of themes, experienced and resonant themes. Experienced themes are just that, the themes that are experienced by the player through the game's story and setting, however resonant themes are a bit different. Resonant themes are the ones that are below the surface and aren't really experienced but have some deep truth that parallels those truths that the player holds. These are the themes that resonate deeply with players and make a story truly meaningful to a player's core.      To people who do not really play video games, they can be easily seen as a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Magazine Columns - Backbone of Every Good Layout Response

There are many aspects that must be considered when designing a magazine. The content is very important, but one aspect of the design that no one really thinks about is the layout of the magazine. The grid is how images and text are placed around the page. It can determine the size of objects and how much white space is between each element on the page.  Most text in magazines appears to be set out into 3 columns. However, one of the most common layouts utilizes 12 columns in order to appear to have 3 columns. This gives much more layout control over what is shown and how it is shown. Its very surprising that a 12 column layout results in 3 columns of main text. However, the goal of this is so that it is modular. In computer science, one of the most important things that you consider when coding is to try and make your code modular. When you can use the same layout on every page, it means that it is dynamic and interesting since each page will feel like it follows the same rules. T...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Art of Game Design: Chapter 8 and 9

    Chapter 8 in the book The Art of Game Design  is all about the actual production process that is followed after brainstorming is complete and a team has an idea for what game they will be developing. One of the topics that this chapter focuses on are the ideas of software development, waterfall and a more circular idea designed by Barry Boehm. As a computer science major, I have encountered both of these ideas through my time in college and in the busniss world. Both theories have their positives and negatives, but the idea of "waterfall development" is a much stricter way of approaching software development when compared to Boehm's approach.     With a waterfall approach, this does not leave any room to go back and revisit the original idea and add or remove core features. This approach was used in the development of many old forms of windows, which also coincided with how the software was sold. For example, Microsoft's windows operating systems. Win...
Post a Comment
Read more