The photo in class that really got me to understand a lot of
what Benjamin was saying was the photo of McDonalds. Beneath most McDonalds
signs it says “billions and billions served.” In our society quantity seems to
be so important. When we see that billions of other people have eaten McDonalds
then we right away think, ok I can eat that too then. Quantity of quality is
definitely an example here. McDonalds and all fast food in general is an
example of mass production. Way back at some point in time there was the first
ever McDonalds hamburger, which was an original. Now that same recipe is being
used to create that same hamburger everywhere in the world to satisfy millions.
The idea of mass production and mechanical reproduction is something that is so
prevalent today. It seems like there is barely anything that is just an
original and doesn’t have any sort of copy.
I also liked the quote by Benjamin that said, “…Technical reproduction
can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach of
the original itself.” This helped me get the concept that if there is an
original piece but it has copies made and distributed other places, the art or
whatever it is might be out of context and won’t be seen in the same way. An
example of this was seeing the real Mona Lisa, and then seeing the same image
on coffee mugs and t-shirts in the gift shop. The image may be the same but the
location and context of the art piece is just not right. This can be seen
almost everywhere. I also think in the beginning of class when we discussed with
a partner about the text that it really did help me grasp the concepts a lot
better.
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