2.40 pm

Martin Westwood




Benjamin and Technology

Andrew Chesher

Feb 27th

4.30pm

Lecture Theatre

In his essay ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, written in the 1930s, Benjamin gives an analysis of how the technical reproduction of Art affects the status and experience of the original. On the one hand reproduction dilutes the presence of the original and hence depletes its power, and on the other it makes the reproduced image available more widely, especially true in our present age of digital reproduction. Using Benjamin's analyses and concepts as its starting point and touchstones, this lecture explores subsequent theories about technology, and practices that utilise it, whose basic premises Benjamin anticipated.

Key text: Walter Benjamin (2007), ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, Illuminations, New York: Schocken Books