“Although paintings began to be publicly exhibited in galleries and salons, there was no way for the masses to organize and control themselves in their reception. Thus the same public which responds in a progressive manner toward a grotesque film is bound to respond in a reactionary manner to surrealism” – Walter Benjamin, 1936.
[Figure 1] Walter Benjamin
Art viewing is a passionate hobby. As viewers approach the piece, they admire it and personalize it. Some artworks have inspired mechanical reproduction in movies. For example “Prisoners Exercising”, by Vincent Van Gogh featured in “A Clockwork Orange”, directed by Stanley Kubrick. The scene dedicated to Van Gough is “after Alex is sentenced to prison, there's a scene in which the prisoners circle around in the middle of a small space as part of the daily routine”(Domestika, 2024).
Benjamin’s quote relates to this because he’s worried about the aura that mechanical reproduction will take away from art. "Walter Benjamin saw accurately the logical implications of mechanical reproduction." (Davis 384). One of his concerns was that since films are being mass-produced they would take away the experience compared to admiration of traditional artworks. “Painting simply is in no position to present an object for simultaneous collective experience, as it was possible for architecture at all times, the epic poem in the past, and the movie today. (Benjamin).
As someone who enjoys seeing art first-hand, I agree with Benjamin's claim that mechanical reproduction takes away its authenticity. However, I researched ways that mechanical reproduction benefits art. For example, modern art. “Can’t Help Myself” by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu is a modernized mechanical reproduction. The robotic arm's task is to repeatedly dip a sponge into a liquid substance and then squeeze it out.
[Figure 2] Sun Yuan & Peng Yu “Can’t Help Myself”
This art piece is beneficial because it ties back into Benjamin’s concern of mechanisms taking away authenticity. The artists themselves claim they “wish to test what could possibly replace an artist’s will in making a work and how could they do so with a machine” (Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, 2016). In spite of Benjamin's ideals of disrupting traditional art, modern art like this is necessary to develop into other forms of art.
Michele Elam, a professor at Stanford University, created a course on ‘ART + AI’ that “will explore the intersection of art + AI & the value of this relationship” (Elam) like how we reviewed the relation between math and art last week.
[Figure 3] Sougwen Chung "Putting the Art in AI"
Works Cited
Mercado, Karen. “20 Artworks That Inspired Famous Movie Scenes: Blog.” Domestika, DOMESTIKA, www.domestika.org/en/blog/10026-20-artworks-that-inspired-famous-movie-scenes. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.
Jensen, Beth. “How AI and Art Hold Each Other Accountable.” Stanford HAI, 6 May 2020, hai.stanford.edu/news/how-ai-and-art-hold-each-other-accountable.
Weng, Xiaoyu. “Sun Yuan and Peng Yu: Can’t Help Myself.” The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation, www.guggenheim.org/artwork/34812. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.
Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". Translated by J. A. Underwood, Penguin Books, 2008.
Davis, Douglas. "The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction (An Evolving Thesis: 1991-1995)." Leonardo, vol. 28, no. 5, 1995, pp. 381-386. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1576221.
[Figure 1] "Walter Benjamin." The Times of Israel, www.timesofisrael.com/topic/walter-benjamin/. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.
[Figure 2] “Sun Yuan and Peng Yu: Can’t Help Myself.” The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation, www.guggenheim.org/artwork/34812. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.
[Figure 3] Chung, Sougwen. “Putting the Art in Artificial Intelligence: A Conversation with Sougwen Chung.” Sougwen Chung (愫君), sougwen.com/putting-the-art-in-artificial-intelligence-a-conversation-with-sougwen-chung. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.
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