All Art is Reproducible
Challenge
Analyze and respond to 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction'
This project is part of the Literature Review, wherein I had to read 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' by Walter Benjamin, write a literature review analyzing it and respond to it in the form of a material exploration.
Guide
Prof. Gaia Hwang
Tools
You Tube, Clay Modelling
Timeline
You Tube, Clay Modelling by hand
Analysis
The original aura cannot be duplicated
Benjamin portrays three principle ideas:
- Technology renders art impure
- The film is an alteration of reality that destroys the aura of art
- Contemplation is individual, whereas distraction is mass
Design Response
A successful camouflage
As my design response, I displayed a set of 5 identical succulents and asked my classmates to guess what they were. They all mentioned that they were normal plants. But when I asked them if they felt the same after touching them, they all disagreed. Two of those plants were made from doh with the help of Youtube videos, and one of them was made of plastic.
This demonstrates that even though it is effortless to duplicate art, what one loses is the existence of space and time of the original one.