Post-Class Benjamin

This week we studied Walter Benjamin and read his essay, “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”. In it he discussed when technology reproduces art, the historical value disappears because it is not authentic anymore. We looked at an example in class that had a McDonald’s sign that said “hamburgers-billions and billions served”. Benjamin would say this is a negative thing because if billions and billions are sold than the value is decreased and therefore not valuable or authentic, but in our culture it’s looked at different. In our culture, this would be considered a positive thing, because if billions are served than that must mean they are good. When people, including me, see that a lot of people are buying and enjoying something it makes them want it.

Original pieces are a lot more difficult to obtain whether it’s because of time and effort or just the price. Of course the original pieces are going to be very expensive and hard to get, so most people just get the copied items. My brother used to collect authentic baseball jerseys (that they actually wore) signed by professional baseballs players on the New York Yankees. He used to spend every dime he made on them and since they were so expensive my mom asked him if he should just start buying the jerseys that the players did not actually wear (but still signed) because they were cheaper, and he said absolutely not because it was not authentic and therefore he didn’t want it because it would not mean the same thing to him.

Benjamin states, “Reproduction…differs from the image as seen by the unarmed eye” (28). This statement has to do with my brother and how he would only buy authentic jerseys. The quote is saying that the authenticity gets put into question when an item is reproduced, and that it also loses it’s aura/history, which is the reason why my brother did not want to buy jerseys that were not authentic because the history and meaning would be lost.

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