Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

An introduction to the art critic Walter Benjamin and his most influential essay, the Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Including David Douglas's the Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction.
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'Servant of Two Masters'
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Credits:
Stock footage provided by Videvo, downloaded from www.videvo.net
Sources:
Uwe Steiner, Walter Benjamin: An Introduction to his Thought and Work (especially the introduction)
Walter Benjamin, the Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
David Ferris, The Cambridge Introduction toe Walter Benjamin
David Douglas, The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction

[@ThenNow]

Script & sources at: www.thenandnow.co/2023/05/21/walter-benjamin-the-work-of-art-in-the-age-of-mechanical-reproduction/ ► Sign up for the newsletter to get concise digestible summaries: www.thenandnow.co/the-newsletter/ ► Why Support Then & Now? www.patreon.com/user/about?u=3517018

[@StonesAndSand]

I am a cemetery monument engraver enthralled with the hand carved memorials of centuries past. I own a private studio, fully equipped with all the modern tools used to carve stone, yet I somehow resist the persuasion to create memorials based on today's "cookie-cutter", commodified philosophy. As a society of craftspeople and artisans, we have more than enough tools needed to creatively express the individuality of a person's last tribute, yet what is lacking is the willingness to embrace the examples left to us by generations of memorialists who have paved the way. I find it rather strange that, centuries ago, people of very meager and modest financial means literally have more elegant memorials, than do the well-to-do of our present age. How and why is this? I long for the answer, and perhaps will find clues in the writings of Walter Benjamin. Thank you for providing this video. I appreciate it greatly.

[@JohnLaudun]

I like that this meditation on Benjamin's essay reveals a bit of his own indebtedness to an understanding of art that was itself of a time and place. Rituals and cults are, in fact, political. What we have then is an entire transformation of our ideological systems across a broad range of such systems. Benjamin's essay is right in sensing that something has changed, is changing, without yet necessarily being able to understand what the ramifications are.

[@RussellWestcoast]

I would think that rituals and cults are not necessarily “political” in the same way Benjamin is referring to here, since the political relates to modernity‘s rise of the nation state and the political messaging of mass communication, media, and mobilization.

[@danielzylberkan1587]

I think that Walter Benjamin would love memes

[@suipig8701]

yea same

[@spectralv709]

“A work of art in the age of digital reproduction”

[@danielzylberkan1587]

@@spectralv709 exactly, where authenticity and authorship are completely moot

[@cameronetherton8422]

I wrote an essay on this for uni lol

[@rahmyahbegay5475]

@@cameronetherton8422 yooo you mind sending me that essay lmao

[@mariainesferreirarodrigues9467]

This is amazing! The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction is a very long and dense article. Your interpretation was super clear :)) it really helped me out

[@peroz1000]

As someone has already posted: your channel is what The School of Life should be.Keep up the good work!

[@supaduperazn]

yes

[@ObeySilence]

You know why you say that? It is because he has the same accent. Fascinating how we form our opinions by such subtle means.

[@alisonbennett175]

You didn't create School of Life. How do you know what is 'should' be? It is what it is. 'Then and Now' is 'Then and Now'.

[@cruelangel7737]

Yeah, I agree. I expected continental philosophy from the School of Life. Instead, I got a more sophisticated version of what the self-help books that flood the market right now preach. Then & Now, on the other hand, is highly concentrated continental philosophy. Well, sometimes a bit TOO concentrated lol.

[@peroz1000]

@@cruelangel7737 Exactly!

[@cruelangel7737]

Great summary. It's a pretty long article. This is very nice and summarised. The stock footage and music and animation really makes Walter Benjamin's article comes alive.

[@shreyapandey376]

Damn, I'd written a similar paper on the conception / function of art - except that was with regards to the digital / internet revolution. I'd never read this essay, and now I can't help but think how similar were our thoughts, and how pleased Benjamin would be in the 21st century

[@rahmyahbegay5475]

yoooo you mind sending me that essay

[@thatxx9513]

Pleasecould you send the essayy pleasere

[@AnalysisTherapy]

This was well done. As a hearing impaired person I'd love it if you'd be able to upload subtitles too.

[@kissiwaa8028]

The automatic caption worked for me, I'm hearing impaired too

[@davidsoto1900]

Just discovered the channel and subscribed, never stop spreading knowledge

[@georgekazakos4164]

Really fantastic video! I studied this at university and didn't really get it. 10 minutes on KZbin and I understand. I was blind and now I can see.

[@johnarbuckle2619]

Beautifully done!!! It's amazing how alike we think. All these topics are of profound importance and interest to me, but ... I can't find the proper way of communicating them to other people.

[@89reb]

I do believe that it is a deep tragedy, that the critique of the culture that Benjamin and in a larger sense that of the Frankfurt school of thought has gone misunderstood by the other side of the political spectrum and that in fact it has become very often a chiffre for old school antisemitism (usually without reading one side of it), while in fact it is equally discontent with various developments with the (post-)modern world

[@HxH2011DRA]

Easily one of the most important essays of all time

[@NexGenVision0]

Complete study notes: Walter Benjamin- "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" eliteraturenotes.blogspot.com/p/walter-benjamin-work-of-art-in-age-of.html?m=1

[@ismaelziri5736]

Thank U for sharing this great work.

[@JohnSand-cg8gy]

I just wrote more than a few essays about Walter Benjamin and I love love love this video! SUBSCRIBED!

[@nickayyyl8167]

lol send your essays

[@JohnSand-cg8gy]

@@nickayyyl8167 hahahaha!

[@morala3375]

Did you write an essay on this. Cause if so is it possible to send it to me please

[@JohnSand-cg8gy]

@@morala3375 haha once it gets published

[@LogicGated]

Very well done video.

[@dclark2529]

It's frightening how similar my recommended videos look to the ones at 7:20.

[@allertonoff4]

thought it was 'Ben-ya-meen' .. anyhow, Great summary, almost thought i was listening to Jonathan Meads for a minute ;]

[@RSpudieD]

My film theory teacher says it "Ben-a-mean" and it was literally a week until I realized how it was spelled.

[@alexdonovancole]

It’s Ben-yah-mehn

[@georgekazakos4164]

Come on guys, it's Ben-ya-fkn-mino.

[@earthzoneproductions9041]

Excellent video! It's Davis Douglas btw... :)

[@harrisonmorris5556]

Excellent video, thank you.

[@jon780249]

Exceptionally well done.

[@markhesselink]

Very interesting take!

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:55 - Authenticity 3:40 - Politics

[@oscarmorland3788]

Thank you, very informative

[@michaelkoppy]

Actually, some 80+ people flew across the Atlantic before Lindbergh -- he wasn't even the first solo pilot. Well done video, however, with lots of wonderful visuals behind the solid thinking. Perfect score as well. Very nice. Congratulations.

[@markymarcm]

Great video as always. Just wanted to point out that "The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction" was written by Douglas Davis, not David Douglas ;)

[@lsobrien]

Awesome. More Benjamin please.

[@inanedreamz673]

Amazing content

[@user-em7se7bm7v]

it took me some research to understand the French philosopher referred to by Benjamin. It s "Demao" it is George Duhamel

[@zarathustra8789]

Very important philosophical essay on art, from a great mind. On par with "The Origin of the Work of Art" by Heidegger.

[@loncewyse696]

[7:04] It's Douglas Davies, The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction (not David Douglas).

[@mattg5328]

Really Nice, a nice summary of Benjamin's seminal essay. But sorry to be a pedant, wasn't The Work of Art in the Age Digital Reproduction written by Douglas Davis?

[@jazzy070298]

great video

[@andrejzizek4290]

Great, so good!

[@ntyh92]

Your recommended "Up next" are eerily similar to mine..

[@NunpuiiHmar]

the Aura of your Voice :) :)

[@camiheartzacnskating]

Massively interesting comment. Shouldn't the aura be dissipated since he was speaking into a microphone with no actual listeners?

[@lifeisbettergreen]

Cute comment!

[@slumgullion313]

That was wonderful

[@sigitadi3867]

Can i get the transcript?

[@VinceJayEBoter]

Art Appreciation brought me here!

[@SophieDainty]

1:35 - im here for an essay hi

[@gisellehernandez7904]

Thank you this was super insightfullllllllllllllllllll

[@jeckreebon]

Watching this video, I embody Duhamel in his quote, "I can no longer think what I want to think. My thoughts have been replaced by moving images." Is it just me or the thoughts of Benjamin hurriedly spewed by narrator is difficult to weave through a linear narrative that would easily makes sense?

[@fallowfieldoutwest]

Don't forget to like the video, boys

[@ThenNow]

And share/tweet/tell your neighbour ;)

[@nadia-000]

and girls!?

[@fallowfieldoutwest]

@@nadia-000 Girls, boys and in-betweens

[@NexGenVision0]

Complete study notes: Walter Benjamin- "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" eliteraturenotes.blogspot.com/p/walter-benjamin-work-of-art-in-age-of.html?m=1

[@richardouvrier3078]

Making sense of capitalist mass REproduction.

[@vidividivicious]

Damn, I had Baudrillard flashbacks

[@hanawana]

thanks

[@SeekersofUnity]

Brilliant

[@sirlordhenrymortimer6620]

I was wondering how to research to write a history book eg verified sources, citations etc.

[@keukenkastje05]

Do you mean like academic research?

[@sirlordhenrymortimer6620]

@@keukenkastje05 yes

[@keukenkastje05]

@@sirlordhenrymortimer6620 Well, first you choose a subject you find interesting and narrow down what you want to write about. For example 'Greek Culture' is to big. But 'Persian influence on Greek Culture in the hundred years after the battle of Salamis' is much more narrowed down and makes it easyer (for you) to research. Now you can more specifically look for sourches: books, articles, essays etc. surrounding that topic. Collect as much as you can find. Now you need a methodology, how are you going to answer your research question (What is the influence of Persian Culture on the Greek Culture in the 100 years after the battle of Salamis?) in a scientific way? Whats your MO. This is the backbone of your research. If you want to show an influence you need to show a distinction before and after, you need to show that the influence is in matter of fact Persian and not something else. This is where you use your sourches. While you write and use information from these sourches you cite your sourches in footnotes and the bibliography (A list of all the sourches you used in your academic research). So the reader knows 1. The writer did research and not made it up him/herself, and 2. I can check those sourches myself. An academic research, most of the time consists of three parts: introduction, middle, conclusion. Introduction: what is the subject? what is my research question? how am I going to answer this question? (Methodology). Middle: actual research, what are your findings? What maybe contradictionary? Coclusion: what is the conclusion of your research, answer of your research question, suggestion for further research and critical reflection on your own research; what could've done beter? This is a rough outline, AR is difficult and more nuanced in practise. Does this answer your question? :)

[@sirlordhenrymortimer6620]

@@keukenkastje05 it's very helpful but I want to write an academic article about early Christian influence on Rome:weather it actually led to their ultimate decline (as gibbons predicted) or is it much more complex set of circumstances

[@keukenkastje05]

@@sirlordhenrymortimer6620 That's a great topic for an academic research paper! Very interesting. What university do you study at?

[@nothingmatters321]

Very good. Slight note: Works with cult value did not "exist for their own sake." Their value was their cult value .

[@progyandas9650]

Came here after Zizek mentioned a very interesting quote by Benjamin . This guy basically saw the future of the media and art .

[@cimmik]

Thanks. Now I want to change the world

[@asfaersadfa484]

Just one thing, Benjamin is pronounced Benyamin the J is the same sound like YAnkee.

[@idk-yh6wx]

Walter.

[@JVDADV]

, it's not about any political significance it's completely about the art object

[@zhidong5780]

Niceeeeeee

[@ScholasticChad]

He don't look like the type of man I strive to become

[@aaron2709]

Benjamin/you are using the words 'art' and 'film' interchangeably, which is confusing. This video is just about film... documents of time-based performance/events, characterized by movement and sound. Painting and sculpture are still and silent and only marginally useful as a 'political' tool.

[@JVDADV]

That's the LIE. There is no contribution for the object after but what has been completely recognized is that the artworks do not fall into

[@Dreddwinner]

😎

[@luciferestreladamanha]

Great! But in this essay there is a secret not revealed!

[@mimosamigoza]

Theofilo Oliveira which is?

[@luciarodezno4395]

Yeah...What is it?

[@hugoteubal2972]

TELL ME PLEASE

[@luciferestreladamanha]

@@hugoteubal2972 Hello. There are others influences in this essay. I am finishing my PhD thesis. But now only thing which I can tell you is: Can you speak or read in Portuguese? If your answer is yes, go to Revista Estúd(I)os sobre Fichte. It's easy to find. If you cannot read or speak Portuguese, read again Mirian Hansen. She has a work about this text in a different contexts.

[@TheZeus826]

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are self-expressing.

[@husamosman375]

Chill Benny NFTs fixed all that.

[@mitchellkato1436]

When I was young, I thought Idea was the next step to duplication. Then I realized coming up with ideas were not so difficult. Yet so, to bring forth the idea into the media was not automatic. Thinking is thick thinking. To sustain thought of idea is the source of philosophy (which reminds us of philosophy and Science). Is this all fad? Perhaps there are levels of fad. Or perhaps fad is just another derogatory word for idea.

[@milosgrmusa8325]

Beeing that far of, in this short name for a good substitute, in strange ocurance of years passing buy, well for the most suprisive outbrake, let's say it like that, would be just like you said. Bad name for a small interprise. And than the smart things, lose their most important crative aspecet, to see far beyond that, you can easily notice on the street, how appraisal doesn't really change. Loosing, thea rtistic breach towards the straingt comon reward, in wich you can replace a fair amount of shit, mass, with the second thing that comes to mind, paying respect to source and becomin new ideas, are putting you on a path not that lonesome and ugly, as the story goes. A sly in a way hidden, filled up to the end with fair amount of everything that comes to mind, and not to be sought for the complete pile of rubbish, a decent but cynical staying point, as that far of a terrible picture to draw to, would settle more real terms of things to do. Going straight ahead comes with that kind of terms, yet idea is allways present, blank as a day you left behind, on a way to what breings er to full meaning. Dunno, rissing as a bright point in this video beats gray scale depression. Too big to assume anything. Kamoooon

[@mitchellkato1436]

@@milosgrmusa8325 O my. I was a bit cloudy. So it invoked cloudy response. There are three levels: realism, abstraction, and non-representation. Realism is realism. Now abstraction goes far. Non-representation is the beginning of intellectualism. And it is wonderful that it works at all. People who faced with non-representational art may simply be dumbfounded.

[@minervali631]

The pronunciation of benjamin really drives me nuts...

[@fluffyhiguera4590]

"photographs become standard evidence for historical occurrences, and acquire a hidden political significance" what do you guys think he meant by this?

[@jonathansanders5540]

69 comments hahaha

[@richardouvrier3078]

Cult of l'art pour l'art, individuality. Reproducible art is propaganda.

[@sirlordhenrymortimer6620]

How do you explain that communism exploit art by politicising it?

[@holitinne]

I think it’s pronounced as BEN YAH MIN.

[@g-r-a-e-m-e-]

Thanks. I would prefer no music, it gets in the way, I find. I actually prefer no visuals too, the footage is only vaguely related to the content, and gets in the way. Nevertheless nice work!

[@garyspence2128]

Would you like the narrator to mail you a letter? Containing his script. Or just read Benjamin's essay, if you prefer. And leave the rest of us simple proletariat alone. Good luck...

[@g-r-a-e-m-e-]

@@garyspence2128 I prefer no music, or unrelated video, which distracts from the points being made.

[@BlueMorningStar]

Nice video, but Benjamin's name is pronounced BEH-NEE-MEEN

[@LazarMilin]

actually it is pronounced as *waltah benyamin*

[@akshitkumar6193]

Walter benjamin would like NFTs 😂

[@excessivebleeding36]

NFTs bout to blow homies hair back yo!

[@bdinh3130]

"... the Marxism that runs through doesn't have to be accepted to find value in its arguments ..." I'm sorry, but you are just wrong. The whole essay is a continuance of dialectical materialism straight from Marx. I know for optics sake to get more people on board you need want to sweep that whole line about Communism under the rug but honestly people at this point need to understand the historical context in which things are written and not just associate everything that has to do with Marx with the Soviet Union. Particularly under Stalin. Thumbs down and unsubscribed for your mass appeal compromise.

[@RetiredMonolith]

Art loses its meaning and value as a practice with each ticking day...

[@Xcalator35]

Never got Benjamin's essay. For me the 'aura' of an work of art is a bourgeois aesthetic category, something akin to 'comodity fetishism'. There is nothing revolutionary about it. It is a reactionary concept.

[@garyspence2128]

Perhaps it is simply an alternate point of view. And throwing around epithets like 'reactionary' seems counterproductive to actually pondering ideas and issues. You may need to open your narrow mind just a little bit. Just saying...

[@Xcalator35]

@@garyspence2128 Well, I think you're right to a certain point. But it seems that Benjamin himself held a view similar to mine after all (at least according to certain readings of his essay). But as I said, I'm not versed in Benjamin's thought so I should be more humble and try to understand it better instead. With that I agree with you.

[@dirkturtle3354]

"Aura" isn't a positive for Benjamin. He's arguing in favor of the destruction of aura in art.

[@cliffdariff74]

to bad he got it so wrong politically... a Marxist.

[@garyspence2128]

Hey, he was a Jewish Marxist in Germany, moments before Hitler took over. Joining the Republican party wasn't going to smooth his path to wealth, a home in the suburbs, or a seat in the Reichstag. And capitalism seems to be hanging on by a thread as we speak. If you can even call what we've got capitalism. Socialism for the rich, and feudalism for the rest of us peasants. Don't get caught up in our own propaganda. We're just trying to stay alive and above water. Same old hustle....