Assignment 6 - Modern Vision

Walter Benjamin believed that something authentic was a singular object that had not been reproduced. If it was the only object that existed then it was valued a lot more. Once replications of it were made it was no longer as special or it was not valued as much. Donatello's statue of David is an example of Benjamin's idea of 'authentic'. The statue was made in the 1440s out of bronze. It is the only one of its kind and it has a history to it. It is recorded as the centerpiece of the first courtyard in the Palazzo Medici during the wedding festivities of Lorenzo de' Medici and Clarice Orsini in 1469. But now there are two more versions of the statue; one is a full-size plaster cast (with a broken sword) in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the other is a full-size white marble copy in the Temperate House at the Royal Botanic Gardens. Benjamin thought that singular existing objects were special and had a certain aura about them.

I agree with Benjamin and the idea that authentication is lost once it has been reproduced. Once  something is no longer 'authentic' it has lost its aura about it. It is not valued knowing that someone owns something that you own that is close and dare to you. It would no longer harbor that meaning as much as it used to. One of the best examples of authentication is people. Every person is authentic because they are the only one of them in the world. Essentially everyone it different. People would not be very authentic if everyone looked the same.

I believed that in this day and age Benjamins idea of authentication has been lost. Any digital photo taken can be reproduced with a simple click of a button. There seems to be fewer and fewer things were there is only one of its kind. I think this be mainly be due to modern technology and how advanced it is getting. The most authentic thing i have found is my own artwork. I think that if there is a reproduced artwork then its value is little to none. Benjamin quoted ' That which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art'.