The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

A work of art's "aura" can be described as a certain resonance perceived by the viewer. This aura is characterized by the object's unique existence and by its authority, authenticity and ritual function.

Mechanical reproduction withers the aura. "Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be." The distance between the viewer and the work of art is breached. Reality becomes a hypertext. Benjamin writes of film, "With the close-up, space expands; with slow motion, movement is extended. The enlargement of a snapshot does not simply render more precise what in any case was visible, though unclear: it reveals entirely new structural formations of the subject. . . . [A] different nature opens itself to the camera than opens to the naked eye - if only because an unconsciously penetrated space is substituted for a space consciously explored by man." Rather than being "absorbed" by a work of art, the viewer is able to penetrate it.

Walter Benjamin contends that "for the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual. To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility." The question of "authenticity" is based in ritual and without it, the work of art's "aura" disintegrates. This, however, frees art to serve a new social function.

Digital printing is one of several reproductive processes changing the face of art today. It has had a profound effect on both the field of printmaking and photography, diminishing the need for presses or darkrooms. Digital printing allows increased production and circulation, contributing to the rise of multiculturalism and globalization. The availability of digital cameras coupled with easy image manipulation through graphics editing programs and affordable printers, makes art-making ever more available to the masses. This easy accessibility narrows the distinction between artist and audience and redefines what the art of today is.