From: https://laughingsquid.com/tokyo-tokyo-photo-series-shows-one-moment-from-two-angles/
The chapter “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility” in the book ‘The Work of Art: Second Version’ revolves around the Marxist approach on the gradual change in art production along with the rapid evolution of technology. The writer, Walter Benjamin revises the past of the replication of art pieces, from literature to lithography – which actually marks the beginning of the era of technological reproduction. He also describes the social ideology behind the aura of art itself – the natural desire for us humans to get closer to things, and to assimilate these objects by replicating them.
Personally, I do agree with Benjamin – in the sense where the idea of replication has always existed, and the fast-paced change in technology only fueling this further. Especially with the invention of social media platforms, where many can replicate original photography or films seen elsewhere, and it spreading even faster with the global access to such platforms. And considering most of the world live among a capitalist society, many of these individuals can benefit from posting unoriginal artwork, making a profit of such things. Before the invention of such technology, the replica of art was to mainly appreciate it, understand its meaning, and perhaps arguably not to personally gain from it financially. But in this day and age, it can so easily be overlooked by many.
However, there are its benefits. A portrait has always only been able to capture one aspect or view of an object. But with the use of cameras in photography and film it can allow us to capture it from more than one viewpoint efficiently. And of course, each piece of existing artwork can be said to be different from one another, with different meanings and ideologies. But likewise, with architecture, paintings and even sculptures, each piece of artwork could come with a caption. Although the use of technology has enabled unoriginality to become a new and everlasting trend, captions can be used to differentiate between each artwork and to allow us to understand the complexity behind them all.
The lack of authenticity and originality in artwork most prominent in the 21st century as technological reproduction of said artwork has made it easy, convenient and almost meaningless throughout our daily lives (most notably through social media platforms).
Ng Chung Yan Jasmine (3035555200)