These are not criticism - it makes no specific point - you would first have to demonstrate that your characterizations actually stem from Benjamin's work - Chair, Visual Arts and Technologies The Cleveland Institute of Art
> From: Derek Allan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: <[email protected]> > Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 17:06:23 +1000 > To: <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Presence > > Ah the good old 'I have undergrads who could do better' answer. > > But what about responding to the specific criticisms I have made? > > In a way I am glad this topic has come up. I had never really > consciously recognised before just how limited Benjamin's outlook is, > especially from a historcial point of view. It's quite surprising in a > way, given that he was writing the 1930s and so much was known by that > time about the attitudes of early and other cultures towards the > objects we now call art. Malraux was certainly keenly aware of it and > had integrated it well and truly into his thinking by then. Benjamin > is still wallowing around in a basically 19th century "linear" view of > history - not surprising really, I guess, since he is obviously stiil > so much in the shadow of Marx. > > DA > > On Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 11:42 AM, Saul Ostrow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> And this passes for a analysis and a polemeic - please I hav eunder grads >> who can do better than this >> Chair, Visual Arts and Technologies >> The Cleveland Institute of Art >> >> >> >> >>> From: Derek Allan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>> Reply-To: <[email protected]> >>> Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 09:10:55 +1000 >>> To: <[email protected]> >>> Subject: Re: Presence >>> >>> RE: 'Benjamin used the word "aura" to refer to the sense of awe and >>> reverence one >>> presumably experienced in the presence of unique works of art. According to >>> Benjamin, this aura inheres not in the object itself but rather in external >>> attributes such as its known line of ownership, its restricted exhibition, >>> its publicized authenticity, or its cultural value. Aura is thus indicative >>> of art's traditional association with primitive, feudal, or bourgeois >>> structures of power and its further association with magic and (religious or >>> secular) ritual.' >>> >>> (1) I like 'presumably' experienced... >>> >>> (2) In 'primitive', and 'feudal' times there were no 'works of art'. >>> Slight glitch in Benjamin's historical analysis there. >>> >>> (3) Why should any of this have anything to do with 'structures of >>> power' ? As I recall, there is nothing in Benjamin to demonstrate >>> this. (But what the heck, it sounds classy. And there are nice Marxist >>> resonances - without actually having to invoke Marx...) >>> >>> (4) Re:"such as its known line of ownership, its restricted >>> exhibition, its publicized authenticity, or its cultural value. " >>> >>> This is so hopelessly shaky historically speaking. For vast stretches >>> of history and for large numbers of objects we now regard as art, the >>> question of 'line of ownership' was entirely irrelevant. Ditto the >>> notion of 'exhibition.' The statues at Chartres were not on >>> 'exhibition', or Buddhist sculpture or so much else. That is Western >>> post-Renaissance thinking. Authenticity?? The very notion would not >>> have made sense. Ditto a million times over for 'cultural value'. >>> >>> Benjamin's' outlook is so obviously limited by the conventional >>> leftist thinking of his times... >>> >>> There is more to say but I'll leave it at that. >>> >>> DA >>> >>> On Thu, Jul 3, 2008 at 8:52 PM, Saul Ostrow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>>> Benjamin used the word "aura" to refer to the sense of awe and reverence >>>> one >>>> presumably experienced in the presence of unique works of art. According to >>>> Benjamin, this aura inheres not in the object itself but rather in external >>>> attributes such as its known line of ownership, its restricted exhibition, >>>> its publicized authenticity, or its cultural value. Aura is thus indicative >>>> of art's traditional association with primitive, feudal, or bourgeois >>>> structures of power and its further association with magic and (religious >>>> or >>>> secular) ritual. With the advent of art's mechanical reproducibility, and >>>> the development of forms such as film in which there is no actual original, >>>> the experience is freed from place and ritual. "For the first time in world >>>> history," Benjamin wrote, "mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of >>>> art from its parasitical dependence on ritual." >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Derek Allan >>> http://www.home.netspeed.com.au/derek.allan/default.htm >>> >>> >>> -- >>> This message has been scanned for viruses and >>> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is >>> believed to be clean. >> >> >> > > > > -- > Derek Allan > http://www.home.netspeed.com.au/derek.allan/default.htm > > > -- > This message has been scanned for viruses and > dangerous content by MailScanner, and is > believed to be clean.
