In this essay, Walter Benjamin talks about the influence of art in the society. In an age where we have a lot of tools to copy and make the art accessible to the masses.

According to Benjamin, when the artwork is reproduced it loses its aura, which means that copies left behind the memory of a specific time of history that belongs only to the original piece. It’s important to analyze this concept, especially today when the digital technology facilitates the reproduction of the Art, much more than the tools that existed when Benjamin writes this paper.

Nowadays reproduction affect the society, on that way that we have had to change some laws as the laws to protect intellectual property (copyright), and the companies have had to invent new ways to sell the work of the artists because this also affects the market. Democratization can be something good or bad for Art and it’s worth questioning if democratization of Art by using these tools at our disposal, at the end do that the piece of art loses value or not.

Filed under commlab.