Response Paper to Walter Benjamins The Work of Art in the essays

Response Paper to Walter Benjamins The Work of Art in the essays Response Paper to Walter Benjamins The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Walter Benjamin discusses the question how and to what extent art and artist and their role in society changed by the means of mechanical reproduction, particularly by the introduction of film and photography. He introduces the term aura , which he defines as a traditional feature of pieces of art as part of the cultural heritage and which he bases, in my opinion, on what he calls the cult value of art, opposed to the exhibition value. He claims that by replacing a unique existence by a plurality of copies the means of mechanical production destroyed a works uniqueness and thus its aura, which was the obverse of the crisis of his days and the renewal of mankind. He derives the cult value of art from ancient times when art was only a part of rituals first referred to as magic and then to as religious ones. In this respect art was mainly meant to be for the spirits or for God and did its service s imply by existing, no matter if it was shown to other men or not. But now the Age of Mechanical Reproduction emancipates the work of art from its dependence on ritual and puts its emphasis on the exhibition value with the significance of art depending on the peoples realization of it and provoking as much their response to it as demanding to be discussed, which goes together with a collective reception of a work of art by an increasing number of people at the same time. The same way as a formerly magic instrument was later recognized as a work of art, the artistic function of todays art with the emphasis on its value by being on view may later, as he suggests, be recognized as incidental , i.e. in favor of a social or political function. With the use of new media in the field of art he sees its work in a totally new context which introduces and even requires some more determining components such as captions giving p...