Art: politics

In his Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Benjamin observes how the relationship between authenticity and reproduction have developed over time, due to its importance of "time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be" (432).
In reference to aura, Benjamin defines it as "the unique phenomenon of a distance"(433). He says that in contemporary terms, aura has been decaying, because we have been overcoming the uniqueness of every reality by accepting its reproduction (434). To destroy an object's aura (to follow the mt rang with your eyes or the branch of a tree) is to have a new perception - one that promotes this "universal equality of things" - from the reproduction of the unique object itself. The original work of art is essential is as much as its ritual value - the location of its original use (434). The work of art reproduced by mechanical means (the photograph of it, the film of it, or the copying of the original painting) "becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility" (434). At the point when an artwork ceases to have the ability to be reproduced, artwork goes from being about "ritual" to being about "politics." People are able to see more clearly the picture of a statue that has been taken from the original location of the statue - inside the temple itself. Now that we can reproduce art so easily especially "photography and film", the function of art has shifted - it is now challenging man in a new way (435). The labels at the bottom of the paintings or the descriptive words of a photo necessary for a film present a new purpose for art - one that has political value for man. They become subjects of new interpretations and discussions for different audiences in different times and places.