Post Class, Benjamin

In class on Thursday we discussed Benjamin’s essay, “A Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction” and the difference between watching a live performance and watching a movie. I think that seeing a live performance is very similar to going to a museum to view a piece of art in terms of Benjamin’s ideas. When you see a live performance it is taking place only in that venue, it is not being distributed throughout stores like a movie would be. Going to see a play is an experience. The audience is able to take in the surroundings and see the actor’s emotions. A live performance gives a different feeling to the audience because they are taking everything in at that specific time and place, they are unable to rewind or start the play over like a movie. I think that watching a movie has become a more passive experience because the option of watching it over again is always available. At a play, the audience has the ability to choose where they want to focus and how they would like to view the performance. This choice is lost in movies because the camera is telling the audience what they should be looking at.

I think that seeing art “live” is different from viewing something that has been mass reproduced. When you take a trip to go to a museum or art gallery it is an experience, like going to see a performance. The viewers are able to experience the artwork in its original context within the surroundings of the museum. If the same piece of art was hanging in someone’s house I do not think it would be experienced in the same way by viewers, it would not having the same feeling.