The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

    I found this read, "The work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" very interesting. I loved how it showed the evolution of the process of Art Reproduction, and how photography took Art Reproduction to another level. The interesting concept arrises, is a reproduction is as good or as valuable as the original? Some would argue that in some given circumstance, "Yes", an example is with film, if you slow down the original, one might see things that the naked eye might have missed, making the reproduction more valuable than the original, Others may disagree and say that an original painting is more valuable than a replica, an example of this is an original painting from Micheal Angelo would cost more than a reproduced painting of his. I love Walter Benjamin's quote,
"The uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from its being imbedded in the fabric of tradition".

Walter Benjamin – The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction – Summary and Review

Walter Benjamin – The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction – Summary and Review

As I read the summary and review of Walter Benjamin I thought this statement was very deep, " Dialectical materialism holds that social changes are the result of power struggles that are present in all forms of material existence. When taking this line of thought to the field of art, Benjamin attempts at explaining how technological changes influnenced art and how these relations might have social significance".   I agree because art and technology is used in everything, in the early years propaganda posters were used by the Germans and the United States during war time, and now we have internet to filtrate the same propaganda all over the world. The social significance (art/technology helped to bring about), the internet, confirms Walter Benjamin's theory, with all the social media available today.

Future Technology

The movie Frankenstein came out years ago with many remakes. The cartoon, "The Jetsons" also  came out years ago with face to face video conferencing and flying cars. Today we have real time video conferencing and a car that can fly. Today Frankenstein, in a sense, is being pursued as a reality. The transferring of a human head to a different human body is actively being pursued.

Technology and Media

Bust of Nefertiti
Technology and Media
I am impressed of how far technology has come. I love how you can scan an object and create a 3D image, especially an image thats over 3000 years old. Its also sad that a lot of these artifacts are not for public viewing, I believe history should be shared between everyone.

Blacks and Vaudeville

As I watch the Minstrel Show, I was really entertained and a lot of it was funny to me. I know that during the time frame of the Minstrel shows, that there was nothing funny about segregation, and making fun of Black folks, I also know that it was wrong to steal the blacks talents and songs without recognizing them or re-embursing them. At the same time entertainment is just that "Entertainment", and like I said earlier, most of the video was funny to me and made me laught.

The Beggars Opera

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-19576763

Technology and art: Engineering the future

"Today, in our connected world, almost everyone creates. Almost everyone participates."

This article is very interesting, I agree that almost everyone creates and that almost everyone participates. The world is ever-changing and the internet/new technologies and software, are major players in this ever-changing world. I feel in this modern age the meaning of "ART" has taken on a new meaning. The Micheal Angelo and The Picasso of old are gone, and a new generation of artist has arrived and given a new meaning to the word. Virtual art, such as art created in Photoshop, and 3d printing,are a few of the new mediums that help define the new meaning of "ART". I also agree that it has become harder to define Great art, seem's that everyone that has a Photoshop or illustrator calls themselves an artist, and some of the worst art pieces seems to go viral and some of the best pieces seem to fall along the way side.
What I love about the new avenue that "ART" is taking, is that "ART" is evolving along with the ever-changing world.

As I watched "Ring Cycle at the Met #2#3", Opera gained more respect from me. I Heard the music before , but the way it was explained, I did not know it was so complex. The production of putting on an Opera is also complex, I learnt that other than the music, theres the acting, architecture, engineering and other disciplines, that go into producing a successful Opera. The Opera is also educational and sometimes people go to an Opera as a meeting place.

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/were-only-human/what-a-mess-chaos-and-creativity.html

After carefully reading the above experiment, in the link above, I agree that a little mess is good, in certain circumstances,  and that creative people are a lil messy, I love being creative, and I am not a slob., but I am a bit messy. I feel that when a place is too neat, a creative person have nothing to feed off, but with a little clutter will stimulate his/her mind.

As I watched the Movie "Diva" it gave me a chance to reflect on we're we were and where are now as far as technology. I saw the old cars with manual cool up windows old time radios and the over all look of the car, and comparing it to todays "Smart" car, we have made great advances, such as automatic windows, push button start, satellite radio, automatic stop if the car senses danger and also self driving cars. I also noticed the advances in the Arts when it comes to music, the recording of it and the means by which it was played back. reel to reel and cassette tape was the norm back then and we have made some leap frog advances, such as recording on our phones, or in a digital studio also we have done away with tapes, nowadays we playback our recordings digitally, by way of smart phones, satellite radio, and or computers. The movie was very interesting, and the singing was incredible.