At first, the essay discussed how the technological reproducibility of art takes away the uniqueness and authenticity of the artwork, which he called the aura of art. This statement reminds me of an artist named Andy Warhol, who was famous for doing repetitive screen printing pop art. It makes me wonder if will Benjamin thinks Andy Warhol’s works have no ‘aura’. Benjamin worried that the technological reproducibility of art can be used in politics as the production of propaganda can be extremely efficient and impactful through art. Then when I continued reading I realised Benjamin was not totally pessimistic about

Continue readingWalter Benjamin

In his essay, Benjamin emphasized the importance of authenticity in an art piece and hence, objected to technical reproductions, regardless of the perfectness, referring to them as objects that had been deprived of historical testimony and physical duration. The basis of his viewpoint stands on the fact that technological reproduction is more enhanced than the manual counterpart and that it empowers artworks to be displayed distinctive to their original form. His understanding, as I comprehend, is restricted to his era of primitive means of technological reproduction and might be challenged by new advancements such as 3D projection and AI painting.

Continue readingReading Response: Walter Benjamin

In the article of “leaving the movie theater”, it makes readers to think of the role of cinema in the contemporary society. The title indicates that author wants to describe the experience of watching movie at cinema and he emphasizes on the darkness of the theater that brings audience into a dim, anonymous and indifferent cube. In my opinion, this darkness can give audience a sense of being, engagement in the film. Compared with watching movie at home, the familiar space and darkness is erased, people cannot make themselves into the same situation as the film character, the darkness in

Continue readingReading Response: Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes Rustle of Language is a brief yet embellished short essay on the cinema movie viewing experience. Throughout the paper Barthes strongly emphasises the importance of the cinema as an active element in the movie-viewing experience. Barthes argues the cinema is not merely the physical structure in which an audience views a movie, but rather, through its physical characteristics (the englobing darkness, the “amorous” distance between the audience and the screen and the pluralist nature of being in an audience) it’s able contribute to “hypnotising” the spectator, making it view the movie in a semi-concious trance-like state, which in

Continue readingReading Response: Roland Barthes

A film can narrate, and so as space, which makes the audience’s perception more real. In the theatre, the audience is exposed to more information. For example, it starts from ‘darkness’, allowing the audience to gradually enter the ‘hypnosis’ set by the film, as well as the huge screen and surround sound. This visual and auditory information strengthens the sense of immersion. The theatre provides a source of isolation and increases the audience’s concentration during these hours. In addition, the theatre space also brings more possibilities for the film-viewing experience. For example, as explained in the Star Trek’s documentary, when

Continue readingReading Response: Roland Barthes