walter benjamin and digital media - for com 520

Walter Benjamin

The work of art in the age of the mechanical reproduction 1973 [1936]

How the digital media

reinforced Benjamin's argument

(1892 –1940)

( 1912) B.A. Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg

(1913) Humboldt University of Berlin

(1915) M.A. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

(1917) He transferred to the University of Bern

(1919) Benjamin earned his  cum laude PhD

The Concept of Criticism in German Romanticism

(1925) the Goethe University Frankfurt, rejected The Origin of German

Suicide in 25 September 1940 Portbou, Catalonia

Originally published at 1936

Re-published at 1973 by Hanna Arendt

Middle-Ages Magical Ritual

Renaissance Period

beauty of nature and

human beings

Modern Timessocial and

political role

Michelangelo, David 1501-1504

Scholz & Friends, 2007The German Olympic Sport Federation

King David playing the lyreMosaic from the floor of the ancient synagogue at GazaByzantine period6th century CE

Since the Renaissance, Art has AuraPilgrimagePower Relations

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa,1503–1506

However, since the industrial era…

Fritz Lang, Metropolis 1927

Lee Daniels, Precious (2009)

St. Mary Magdalene Simone Martini (1317)

High Art Low Culture

Fernando Boero, Mona Lisa 1978

Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q. 1919

Posted on BuzzFeed.com by anonymous, March 2011

Adolf Hitler The German Federal ArchiveBraunau Am Inn, 20 April 1937

Rendering Aesthetic

Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother 1936 in Nipomo, California.

Sergei Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Politicization Art

Banksy, British Prime Minister, Tony Blair taking a picture

Shepard Fairey, Barak Obama “Hope” poster 2007

Mannie Garcia, AP photo, April 2006

Fair use lawsuit to be settled in 2011

War, Nick knight (1997)

Nick knight (2004)

Can a reproduced work of art contribute to a change? Eddie Adams, Pulitzer Winning Image from the Vietnam War on February 1, 1968

Guard Army Pvt. Lynndie England with naked prisoners, Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq, Undated.

Can a reproduced work of art contribute to a change?

Is there a High Art and Low Culture?

Kasimir Malévitch, carré blanc sur fond blanc, 1918.

Charlie Chaplin, The Boy, 1921

Is there a high art and Low Culture?

Malcolm X (1992)Ernel Martinez - Malcolm X mural, Philadelphia

Do pictures have an “aura”?

As You Desire Me (1932)

Do pictures have “aura”?

Do pictures have “aura”?

Do pictures have “aura”? Is Photoshop a fascist aesthetic?

British prime minister David Cameron Photoshoped and unphotoshoped