Aesthetics concepts and applications

¶ … Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," addresses the nature and evolution of art from unique object to mechanically reproducible. Specifically Benjamin addresses the manifestations of art in the media of painting, and the evolution of visual media to technology such as photography and film. A painting or sculpture, according to the author, has a singular "aura;" derived from the artist's intention and effort in combination with the perception and reaction of the audience.

A further observation that Benjamin made is the fact that an audience for the new media would perceive and experience the art manifested in this way differently from the audience of older art. Indeed, art that is mass produced loses its aura entirely. In film particularly, a team works to create the final product. While the actors and actresses are the focus of attention, they are supported by a large number of crew members. The film is meant for display to large audiences simultaneously, and this means that the fundamental experience of the medium also reforms the audience's experience of it.

In Part XII of his essay, Benjamin says that "Mechanical reproduction of art changes the reaction of the masses toward art. In this, he compares the reaction to a Picasso painting to the reaction to a Chaplin film. In film, more than in other visual arts, the author notes that there is a fusion of visual and emotional enjoyment with the viewpoint of the filmmaker. Being an emotional representation, the film is a far more immediate form of artistic experience than art forms such as paintings.

In Part XII, Benjamin also notes that the advance of the mass audience brought about a "crisis" in art. Mass audiences mean that criticism and positive reception coincide. Being viewed by a small audience at a time, the reception of paintings was dichotomized in terms of reception or averse criticism. When truly new, art tended to solicit much more criticism than acceptance from its audiences. Being mass produced, however brings film into the realm of simultaneous criticism and acceptance. The conventional is no longer relevant. Film as art changes more rapidly than paintings can, and as such destroys the boundaries between the conventional and the new (Kazis). In the same terms a large rather than a small exclusive public overthrows the possibility of homogeneous reaction. This, according to Benjamin, is not how painting is meant to be perceived. Photographs, film, and the epic poem of ancient times, are however media for the mass audience. This appeal to the masses is what makes film and photographs particularly important in terms of their integration with the social values of the time during which they are created (Kazis).

For Benjamin, films and photographs lend themselves particularly well to the dissemination of collective values by means of collective experience. The author held that the development of mass duplication and production had significant advantages for the democratization of the communications media as well as the arts. The aura of original paintings is essentially false in terms of creating a sense of importance for the painting. Benjamin felt that the social importance of art was far more significant than its value in terms of money or uniqueness. In other words, the way in which the film contributes to social commentary, even if it does result in conflict, is much more important than any pretense to value or "aura" that a painting could have.

The basis of Benjamin's views is therefore the integration of art with society by means of the mass media. His vision was the democratization of the masses by means of a media to which a collective reaction was possible.

To a large extent, Marshall McLuhan continued Benjamin's ideas after World War II. He suggested that the mass media entailed a mosaic of thinking, apposed to linear thinking. Rather than the linear time line in thinking, McLuhan's idea focused upon focusing upon simultaneous ideas at once. For McLuhan, the rule of textual logic is broken open by constellative thought. Such thought is encouraged by television and the computer (The Philosophical Society).

Further than this, McLuhan focuses on the method rather than the content of communication within societies. In this regard, method is far more important than content for its influential power. As Benjamin indicated, it is not the content alone or even primarily that influences the perception and consciousness of the perceptive audience. This gave rise to McLuhan's famous phrase "the medium is the message." The fundamental meaning in the content is primarily divulged by the content and in the way that human beings perceive and experience the media (Philosophical Society).

McLuhan furthermore extends Benjamin's ideas relating to the importance of the media to society. The author goes even further by noting that the mass media is an extension of human beings, not only affecting, but also describing the existing attitudes regarding things like culture, politics, moral values, and societal norms. In this, the mass media has the power to completely disrupt the equilibrium experienced in society (The Philosophical Society).

Like Benjamin, McLuhan compares earlier manifestations of the communication media, such as novels, with the mass media today. In the print media for example, human beings generally experience reading on a solitary basis, using only the sense of sight and following a logical sequence and norm when reading. A mass medium such as television on the other hand requires more than one sense, and possibly the emotions as well. It is inclusive, in terms of being simultaneously experienced by a mass audience, while the print media tends to be a private experience.

In this, McLuhan goes somewhat further than Benjamin by distinguishing between "hot" and "cool" media. The former refers to media that usually emphasizes only one of the senses, such as print, radio and photography. Media such as the television and film, on the other hand are "cool," including more than one physical sense, making it an altogether richer experience.

McLuhan completely dismisses the view that the manner of usage is important. Responding to media, especially in terms of television and film, is not often a conscious process. Instead, the media manipulate the responses of the audience by their very nature.

According to McLuhan, the electronic media has resulted in the concept of the global village, particularly via communication media such as the Internet. This has resulted in the decentralization of life in terms of the boundaries between locations, regardless of how far they are removed in terms of physical distance. There is no mental isolation in such an environment. Although if considering the physical realities of the current environment, media users may suffer from a sense of considerable isolation. According to McLuhan, this does not occur for the majority of media users.

One of the most recent philosophers on the nature of the media is Jean Baudrillard, who considers the idea of the hyperreal. This term refers to an artificial, simulated definition of reality, which is in fact not reality itself. In this, Baudrillard takes McLuhan's idea of the media as the message a step further: the medium defines what the message is about. In this, media that relate to phenomena such as beauty or politics have come to define these phenomena. Fashion for example has come to define, rather than report on, beauty.

In this, Baudrillard uses the term "simulacrum," a term originating from Plato, designating a false copy. Baudrillard adopted this term in order to build his own philosophy of the media and its manifestation in terms of society. According to Baudrillard, the current world contains only simulations of reality, as provided by the mass media such as television, films, the news, and the Internet. There is no longer any clear distinction between the reality and copy. The media presenting their audiences with images and experiences have increased the reality of these experiences to such an extent that they are no longer either more or less real than reality itself. Baudrillard refers to these media as "maps" of actual reality.

Strengthening this sense of reality is the audience's response to them. The reality of television has for example become such that the audience have come to accept the characters of comedies and video games as their virtual "friends." Communication by electronic media such as e-mail and Internet chatrooms further emphasizes this sense of reality. The image promoted by the computer and the cell phone has become real, while actual reality is deteriorating.

Later, Baudrillard's philosophy became more specific in terms of three aspects: the orders of simulacra, the phases of the image, and the phases of utopian and science-fiction writing. These aspects are all seen in terms of their evolution over time. The orders of simulacra for example begins with the symbolic order in terms of fixed signs, such as the feudal system. The first order of simulacra designates the early modern period, the second order the industrial revolution up to the middle of the 20th century, and the third order the current reality, or simulation of reality via the mass media.

Similarly, the phases of the image evolves from art reflecting basic reality, through three progressive stages that culminate in art that has no relation to reality at all. The same happens with utopian and science fiction writing. The first stage requires no such writing, as the world is viewed as utopian in its current state. The second stage recognizes the world as imperfect, and compensates for this by means of romantic dreams (Mann). The third stage revolves around technological dreams such as robots and machines, while the final stage once again culminates in an end to science fiction: the hyperreal absorbs science fiction into a new genre related to the Internet and other types of mass media.