Post Class 9/17 Aaron/Benjamin

The reading this past week I felt as though they were easy to understand. While reading Benjamin’s “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” I didn’t get lost in his words as do when reading Lyotard or Barthes. Leaving class on Monday I felt as though I had a full understanding of what I read. The entire class did a good job of picking out points in the text that they received well. I love using analogies to help understand text, it’s an easier way of relating to the concept you are trying to understand. My favorite analogy said in class (up to date) was definitely the analogy that mechanical reproduction in film (Stage vs. Camera) is just like the mechanical reproduction of fruit in to “fruit” drinks (Grape Kool-Aid vs. Grapes).  Just like an argument can be made that when it comes to the production of the play Macbeth it can be said that the onstage production is more authentic and genuine than its filmed counterpart. That once the play has been reproduced mechanically it has lost its aura, its presence, its flavor.  This can be said for Grape Soda or Kool-Aid because grape soda is a mechanically reproduced grape product but it doesn’t really taste like grapes, drinking grape Kool-Aid and drinking grape juice are different in the sense that the Kool-Aid has lost its authenticity.

Also when talks of mechanical reproduction causing something to loose it’s Authenticity  or value, if we look to how the image of the Mona Lisa has left its canvas and has graced coffee mugs, t-shirts and poster boards we see just that. Although I have never seen the original Mona Lisa, I have heard that it is different looking at this image in person than looking at the image on a coffee mug.  A quote for class that goes along with this is “The instant criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production; the total function of art is reversed. Instead of being based on ritual it begins to be based on another practice- politics.” With the way things are reproduced sold and priced, we aren’t thinking about how the original was made in terms of  the art and the time it took, but we look at the original in terms of capital, we see the original is expensive, lets sell the reproduced art at a smaller cost.