Sunday, April 13, 2008

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, wrote by Walter Benjamin

How do the ideas from Walter Benjamin's "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" apply to contemporary digital media?

In the article - The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin thinks that modern digital media as he discusses the rise of new technologies affecting the evolution of art throughout history.

In principle a work of art has always been reproducible. Man-made artifacts could always be imitated by men. Replicas were made by pupils in practice of their craft, by masters for diffusing their works, and, finally, by third parties in the pursuit of gain. Mechanical reproduction of a work of art, however, represents something new. Historically, it advanced intermittently and in leaps at long intervals, but with accelerated intensity. The Greeks knew only two procedures of technically reproducing works of art: founding and stamping. Bronzes, terra cottas, and coins were the only art works which they could produce in quantity. All others were unique and could not be mechanically reproduced.

There was a time when "Art" was made by artists who were skilled professionals. Now that anyone with a computer can create things digitally (music, images, videos, etc), what does that mean for "art"?

Anyone can create digital things with computer today. How to define art? Art is "The quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance". The definition states that the digital media that everyone can create can be considered art. However, Walter Benjamin has different opinion: The concept of aura which was proposed above with reference to historical objects may usefully be illustrated with reference to the aura of natural ones. We define the aura of the latter as the unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be. When someone paints a picture or creates a sculpture, the object and everything that it represents is in a whole, "art". When that picture is copied and reproduced from a machine or that sculpture is replicated it loses some of its artistic appeal. The original objects themselves are "art", because someone created them with their bare hands from their own feelings and emotions. When it is reproduced it loses that, it loses its aura. The painting or sculpture now embodies the beauty of piece, but loses the human aspect.

Is a photoshopped image "authentic"?

The situations into which the product of mechanical reproduction can be brought may not touch the actual work of art, yet the quality of its presence is always depreciated. This holds not only for the art work but also, for instance, for a landscape which passes in review before the spectator in a movie. In the case of the art object, a most sensitive nucleus – namely, its authenticity – is interfered with whereas no natural object is vulnerable on that score. The authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning, ranging from its substantive duration to its testimony to the history which it has experienced.

Do digital "things" have an "aura" (in Benjamin's terms)?

In Benjamin’s opinion, digital “things” are lacking in an “aura” as “... the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence.” Digital things and reproduced things lack aura as the copies are not made within the context of the original therefore draining the entity of its “aura”.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

the Scavenger Hunt questions

1. Who was the creator of the infamous "love bug" computer virus?

Onel de Guzman
(
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/02/11/BU193239.DTL&type=printable)

2. Who invented the paper clip?

Johan Vaaler
(http://ask.yahoo.com/20031120.html)

3. How did the Ebola virus get its name?

Ebola virus got its name from a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), in Africa, where it was first recognized.
(
http://ebola.emedtv.com/ebola-virus/what-is-the-ebola-virus.html)

4. What country had the largest recorded earthquake?

India
(
http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/archives/secondary/casestud/india/2/earthquake.html)

5. In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte?

The terms kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte and terabyte refer to a collection of bytes stored in a computer. There are 1024 bytes in kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes in a megabyte, 1024 megabytes in a gigabyte and 1024 gigabytes in a terabyte. Although the above definitions are the accurate definitions, the terms kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte and terabyte also have a popular definition. A kilobyte is popularly referred to as 1000 bytes, a megabyte is popularly referred to as a million bytes, a gigabyte as billion bytes and a terabyte as a trillion.

(
http://www.sonoma.edu/users/c/carusor/web219/hardware_terms.htm)

6. Who is the creator of email?

Ray Tomlinson
(
http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/email.html)

7. What is the storm worm, and how many computers are infected by it?

The "Storm" worm computer virus/botnet/trojan horse/malware extravaganza got its name from its first method of transmission -- an e-mail attachment with the subject line: "230 dead as storm batters Europe."
The Storm worm, termed Nuwar by
Microsoft but popularly referred to as Storm, was first identified in January 2007. Within one week of it's discovery, the worm had successfully infected over one million personal computers.
(
http://www.hothardware.com/News/What_Is_The_Storm_Worm_For/)

8. If you wanted to contact the prime minister of australia directly, what is the most efficient way?

Use email.

9. Which Brisbane-based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (Head of the School of Arts) a member of?

Associate Professor Stephen Stockwell is the head of the School of Arts on Griffith University's Gold Coast campus where he lectures in journalism, public relations and new technologies. Previously he worked as a journalist at 4ZZZ, JJJ and Four Corners, as a Press Secretary for various state and federal MPs and as a freelance video producer and film publicist. His writing credits include songs for Brisbane punk band Black Assassins, articles and short stories for the Cane Toad Times and a play on the 1982 Commonwealth Games for the Popular Theatre Troupe banned by the Queensland Education Department in the Bjelke-Petersen years. His academic research interests include political campaigns, investigative journalism, new communication technologies and "trash" culture such as Big Things and the Power Puff Girls. His book on political campaign strategy is presently under negotiation with publishers."
(
http://blog.myspace.com/danik0)

10. What does the term "Web 2.0" mean in your own words?

Web 1.0 was mainly a publishing medium, Web 2.0 offers more flexibility and interactivity. Instead of static pages, Web 2.0 offers interactive sites that are more like simple desktop applications - or, indeed, are online versions of simple desktop applications.
(
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/11/20/1132421549312.html?page=3)


I’m not sure I was correct, but I‘ve tried my best to do it.

**I guess they use the key words.

**In the top of my search result, there are key words which I tried to find and the number of the search result.

**I usually use “Google”. I was taught use it to do search when I need to do search online.