INSTRUCTIONS

No question about it, the digital and now the virtual age have revolutionized and are revolutionizing the Art world. In this assignment you will have a chance to explore the question of how new technologies for making and disseminating art have changed our tastes. You will get to analyse what these new technologies are offering us, and also what they are taking away. You will also get a chance to explore post-modernism, a movement that often makes use of new technologies of reproduction.

The relevant Benjamin article is

Benjamin, W. (2010). The work of art in the age of its technological reproducibility [First Version]. Grey Room, 39, 1137

Part 1.

Benjamin argues that the aura around art has been lost with the rise of new technologies of reproduction. Explain what he means by aura, and then outline how he arrives at his conclusion. Do you think that he is right? Give reasons for your answer. Include 3-4 intext citations.

Part 2.

Drawing on Gompertz (What Are You Looking At?, The Surprising, Shocking, and Sometimes Strange Story of 150 Years of Modern Art Will Gompertz) give an account of post-modernism, its ideas and styles.

Find a post-modern work which makes use of technologies of mechanical or digital reproduction (this can be from the textbook or from another source). Analyse the work: do you think it has an aura (in Benjamins sense). If it does not have what Benjamin calls aura, does it still have value; and if so, what is its value?