Disclaimer:
All of these questions and links were first posed by Dr. Mark
America in his Digital Fiction class, Spring, 2019, at the University of
Colorado at Boulder. Links and questions have been posted with his gracious
permission.
!!!(Huzzah to you, Mark, for getting the brain noodles
juiced)!!!
Article:
Walter Benjamin—“The Work of Art in the Age of MechanicalReproduction” (1936)
Questions for Consideration:
How is digital work composed? What is it made of? How does
it get distributed? How is it received over the global net? What happens to the
“aura” of art works distributed over the net? How does the digital apparatus at
our disposal today alter the way we locate and engage with audiences? What
about issues of remix, copyright, appropriation and so-called originality?
A Penny for My
Thoughts?
You didn't really think I'd write about Pokémon Go, did you? Talk about decay ;)
I suppose if we’re going the literal route, digital art is
composed with fingers and brains, the same way it’s been composed for
centuries. The difference being that digital art uses a completely different set
of tools than painting, photography, film or architecture. So, it’s made of
ideas and pixels and networks. It has to navigate firewalls and viruses and
search filers before it ever finds an audience, and even then, it’s in
competition with an increasingly flooded market of other folks’ art and ideas.
It’s distributed through emails and ads and lists and search engines until it
finally catches a consumer’s attention, and then it continues working to keep
that attention. I think because of that, the “decay” Benjamin details happens
infinity-fold for works of digital art. The aura attached to these works is
created in a certain time and space, but isn’t limited to one time or one
space, so the intent of the author or artist is always morphing, always changing—thus
further removing the final project from one definite time or one definite
space. Additionally, once the audience or viewer gets involved, those times and
spaces of consumption are multiplied, causing further distance from the artist
and the audience.
Mediation of a work’s meaning also further deludes a digital
fiction’s “aura,” or uniqueness, because the method of delivery will
automatically alter a viewer/audience’s perception. I mean, if I’m getting some
multi-media story emailed to me by a professor, I’m already going to be worried
that it’s going to be boring or over my head or … things. You know how it goes.
But if my good buddy is like “Yo, Bree, check out this dope Vimeo essay” I’m
going to be like “Hell yeah!” Because my
buddy knows me, knows what I’m into and what I’ll toss in the trash bin, so
when I open that email, I’m already more excited and engaged with my buddy’s
email. This means that now, more than ever, the platforms through which digital
art is mediated matter more than ever. Feel me?
In terms of remix, copyright, appropriation and originality,
my first thought is to take a look at the very first few lines of the link to
this article. Especially the line that reads “Translated: by Harry Zohn.” Before
I ever get into the beans and bullets of this article, I’m already being told
that it’s been appropriated by an academic other than the one who wrote it, because
it’s being translated, right? Which means that for every word that doesn’t
translate from the original language into the translated language, the author’s
original meaning is being appropriated by a translator. So already I’m like,
huh. This is smart stuff. But is it this Walter dude’s smart stuff? Or is it
someone translator’s smart stuff and he’s using Walter’s name to give himself a
quick boost in the world. And what does it mean if something was lost in
translation (as happens in all forms of translations, which is why language
itself is an “aura”). And how does the fact that this article is 83 years old
change the seriousness with which I critique it? How do I make relevance out of
an artifact? And how does the fact that this is an article, which scholars
normally write to engage and inform other scholars, change the way I feel about
reproducing it, or sharing it, or remixing it?
The fact that it was shared with me digitally, and I printed it out and
marked it up and made notes on it and am writing this blog post ABOUT it is
evidence that it already exists in many times and places, which Benjamin would
argue has decayed its originality and value to the point of uselessness.
Interesting idea to try to wrap my noggin around!
These are all considerations for our lightning-paced digital
age, and things I hope to dive further into as I navigate this class!
Thanks for reading, my lovelies!
Until next time,
Until next time,
😼😼 ~Bree 😼😼
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