Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

I would like to preface this response by stating that Walter Benjamin is a loon.  He starts his essay with Fascism and ends with war is beautiful, which extremely loosely fits in with what the rest of his article is about.

The bulk of this article deals with art and reproduction.  Is art still art when it has been reproduced or remediated?  Art is art.  Does the Mona Lisa still have the captivating smile as when first originated or has she lost some of her artistic value through being photographed and put onto t-shirts.  Mass production of works of art should make them more valuable then if it were stowed away in a museum's basement.  The current availability allows the artist to reach many more patrons than that go to the Louvre.  If someone has the privilege to see Mona up-close and personal, I'm sorry to say that you would probably be sorely disappointed.  Not only is there about a hundred people trying to get the best photo op, but also she is behind an inch thick of fingerprinted glass.  Call me crazy, but that is not the definition of beauty to me.

According to Benjamin in order   for a piece to have value its aura needs to be intact.  The aura can be stripped from a piece by way of reproduction of any means.  Film is the aura-snatching medium that Benjamin is most concerned about.  Photographs can be reprinted to an infinite amount, stripping the aura of the work each time.  This flows into his thoughts on the stage performer versus the film performer.  As film continues with the aura stripping, it also takes on the role of the audience.  This point is where Benjamin struggles. When the camera becomes the audience is the aura of the character still being stripped or does it remain intact?

In this article, Benjamin gives a very small margin of what he considers art.  On most instances I disagree with his arguments.  With the lack of art that surround the vast majority of Americans, mass production is the only way to reach certain people.  If the average Joe sees a remediation of some great work on a billboard, he may be interested enough to google it. 

One can only hope that the future of remediated art in America will reach someone, even in the slightest.