The task for this week:
In this week’s reading Benjamin argues, “To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the authentic print makes no sense.” Do you agree or disagree? Do you think there is a role for the ‘authentic’ in an age of digital design and manufacture?
My Response:
I partially agree with what Walter Benjamin is saying when he says photography and film take away the authenticity of prints. I agree that having the photographic negatives makes it incredibly easy to reproduce photographs and therefore the plain fact that there can be many, many copies of the same print may take away its authenticity. However in my mind, there will always be the first print, and there will always be the film that the first print is derived from. The film and the first print are authentic originals in their own right because they are the first, they are the originals.
I think there is and always will be a role for the ‘authentic’ in our digital world, and I also believe that role is present in our future too. There will always be a demand for the authentic first. With our modern digital cameras there may not be a negative to reproduce from, but there is the first copy of the image file captured. There is also the first print, should the artist choose to sign it. I think, continuing with the example of photography, that our digital realm of photo sharing only allows one way to create an authentic ‘copy’ of the artwork and that is to have it signed by the artist/photographer.
