Assignment 1: Triptych and Digital Currents Introduction: Discussion Question

Artist Statement: My inspiration for this assignment came from the upcoming holiday Valentines Day. I mostly used this assignment to explore masking, special effects and selections in Photoshop. Nothing was planned out, it was more of a build as you go type of piece. 

Here are a few quotes from the reading that I found particularly interesting:

1) "Benjamin pointed out, however, that the discovery of photographic technologies from 1850 onward essentially undermined the existing function of art, not only because photography and photomechanical reproduction could provide visual reportage but because it threatened the “aura” and value of the original, the handmade object that relied on the specialized skills of the artist.” (Page 4)

Does this quote imply that “aura” of art’s essence can only be captured by the original work and that any reproduction of a specific piece is only undermining the value of the original? Then how does this so called undermining of the original piece threaten “the existing function of art” as a whole?

2) “When Andy Warhol began silk-screening photo images directly onto his canvases, Pop artists began the appropriation of mass culture, photomechanically reproducing images directly into the field of painting. In doing so they bypassed dealing with the social implications of photography raised by Benjamin.” (Page 6)

Why did these Pop artists that were reproducing their works for consumer consumption, escape the “social implications” that Benjamin labeled photography and cinematography as “threatening the existing foundations of the art establishment?” If we define Art within the terms that art is based on “hand skills” then we are decreasing the scope of art as an institution.