The heart of Walter Benjamin’s piece lies in one sentence: “Even the most perfect reproduction of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space.”
Artists can agree with this, to a certain degree — and that degree, I think, determines how reproduction affects one’s work.
1. Creating for a space: On first day of Red’s class, installation artist Vito Aconcci addressed this matter. He said, before creating a piece, he would first visit the gallery space — and then create art for that space. Although it may be incredibly difficult to deal with an artist like that, it made perfect sense; the “when” and “where” matter just as much as the “what.”
As a writer, I feel the same way — I want to know where my work will be published, and the how the design will frame it. One obvious example: I need to know if I’m writing for an online space or a magazine space — mostly because of the way readers experience the text, but also because an online space is more immediate.
2. Losing its presence: However, I somewhat disagree with the notion that reproduction causes art to lose its presence in time and space. I think if I was creating paintings and sculptures, I would feel more strongly about this. But, as Benjamin constantly notes, the nature of painting is different than that of architecture, photography and film. He also says the invention of photography may have changed the very nature of art, precisely because of its reproducibility.
3. Technological advancements: While Benjamin said photography changed the nature of art, it was frustrating that he didn’t take that notion further. He could’ve said that every technological advancement brings about changes to art. The latest example is the internet — and, as a writer, it has changed my craft greatly. In this blog post, I’ve separated it into numbered sections because the internet demands organization and brevity. I would not have done this as a newspaper writer.
4. Knowledge of the medium: When my writing was first put online, I was quite upset because it was in Comic Sans. The web producers did not understand why I wasn’t happy with this. These days, my writing appears online in Verdana — a basic sans-serif font — so, now, I write knowing how my work will appear. Also, I write knowing that anyone can copy and paste it anywhere on the internet.
I think knowing that one’s work can be reproduced — and reframed — helps us shape how we create art. Also, knowing the degree to which our work will be reproduced allows us to shape our art as needed — and perhaps not get too hung up on it.
5. Aura: Benjamin introduces a metaphysical notion called “aura,” which I took to be the original essence of a creation — the “soul” or an art piece, as perceived by humans. I think artists crave to control the aura, at least to some extent. But reproduction allows the piece to lose it’s intended time and space, which means there are variables that artists like Aconcci cannot control.
As I mentioned, I think knowledge of the medium allows us to keep control of that aura. But I do think reproduction endangers the aura, especially in the age of the internet.
Last year, I saw “Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh — a painting I’ve admired since my childhood. But when I saw the piece, I wasn’t in awe; instead, I remember all the internet pictures I’d seen of it, and I thought, “Hmm, it’s not so different.”
6. Creating a need: Benjamin said was that artists create a need with their art, only to satisfy it later. The American writer Flannery O’Connor was a master of this technique; the first sentence of her stories would create an immediate need — whether for one of her characters, or for the reader. And from there, she would work to satisfy that need.
In this respect, technological advance don’t affect writing as much as it does physical art. However, I bring up O’Connor because, often time, changing a small detail in her story would drastically alter the narrative. And I think, for many art pieces — even photography — the very nature of reproducing it changes the narrative of the piece. And I think it mostly has to do with the need that is created by the time and space.
7. Meta: The translation of Benjamin’s piece murders the English language. (RIP) If we considered this essay a piece of art — which, in some sense, it is — the reproduction/translation of it has altered its “aura.”