John Berger, who was an art critic, is most well known for his seminal work, Ways of Seeing (1972). This revolutionary book, and the accompanying four part BBC film series, has been a cultural phenomenon for decades, and it has helped shape the way in which we see and perceive art. Chapter 1, which you will be writing about this week, is largely inspired by Walter Benjamin's essay, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, but unlike Benjamin's dense text– Berger writes in a very approachable way. Therefore, please watch the 4 film installments (HERE), and read the book (particularly Chapter 1) before you tackle Benjamin's essay.
In this essay he essentially tracks the cultural shift, and thus the displacement of original works of art, through the abundance of mechanically reproduced copies of them. He suggests that which makes works of art unique cannot be transferred to its copies, and that the abundance of copies interferes with our ability to experience the original. He posits that we no longer approach the original work through the lens of its own cultural and historical context, but instead that the abundance of copies serves to divorce it from its history and essentially decontextualizes it.
Questions to ask yourself while reading The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction:
1) What does Benjamin mean by the "aura of the original"?
2) How does he frame the way in which one experiences a work of art in person when compared to the way in which it is experienced through its copies (made through mechanical reproduction technologies– i.e. photographs, JPEGs etc. of those works of art)?
3) What does Benjamin mean when he makes the distinction between cult value and exhibition value?
4) What concerns does he express about the use of reproduction technologies to disseminate propagandistic or politically biased information?
GREAT RESOURCES TO GAIN INSIGHTS INTO BENJAMIN'S ESSAY:
1) For more on Walter Benjamin, visit Stanford University's Encyclopedia of Philosophy HERE.
2) For a very approachable description of the basic themes in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, visit this Yale University Campus Press article HERE.
3) Watch this helpful video (9:29) because it clearly distills and contextualizes many very important ideas in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction HERE, and embedded right below Berger's Ways of Seeing videos.
Understanding Mediation: Photography and Cinema
• John Berger: Ways of Seeing (Entire book, especially Chapter 1)
• Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
• Marshall McLuhan: The Medium is the Message
• Neil Postman: The Judgment of Thamus
• Check out this reference to Marshall McLuhan in The Sopranos HERE.
