Film friend discusses Benjamin, not rockism

Date: 2008-02-21 05:57 am (UTC)
My friend's response:

"let me know if this helps:

you've kind of got it right both ways -- that's part of the beauty of this essay. Benjamin mourns the loss of the aura, but also argues that, with mechanically reproduced art, it's important to acknowledge that the aura is gone. The significance of the aura might be boiled down to the work of art bearing a mark of its having been made. Perhaps this comes in the form of brush strokes in a painting or layers of soot on a sculpture. When encountering an artwork that has an aura, Benjamin finds it difficult to ignore the unique perspective of the work's maker. In other words, objects are not neutral, and the aura reminds us of this.

Mechanically reproduced art, removed from the touch of its maker, has the ability to appear unbiased. The way that fascist filmmakers manipulated this factor scared Benjamin so he called for makers of mechanically reproduced art to include other elements that would remind viewers that the object in question is not free from bias. With "aestheticized politics," Benjamin basically refers to this practice. "Politicized aesthetics," on the other hand, describes the act of consciously mobilizing art for political ends -- and acknowledging that intention somehow through the formal elements of the work (think dada photomontage). "
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Frank Kogan

July 2025

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