Art, Culture &
Technology
Week 8
C om p u t e rs as Cultur e
Presented by Sunny Lim (Sy|L)
2009

Presentation
Outlines
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical
Reproduction
Case studies
Appendix Historical Timeline

The Work of Art in the Age
of Mechanical Reproduction
Convergent Endeavours - Synergy Effects
Pictorial Technology in 1935
Presence in Time and Space
Authenticity
Aura on Art Works
Aura on Human Actor
Advantage of Mechanical Reproduction

Convergent
Endeavours
Synergy effects in combinations of different technology of medium
In 1935, Benjamin foresaw that
Printing + Lithography = Illustrated Newspaper and Magazine
Picture + Sound records = Sound Film
What about in today’s technological world?
Film camera + Computer Cinematic Effect = New genres arising: Virtual Reality
and Game-alike Film
Fast Computer Processors (mainly for calculating A.I.) + Fast Computer Graphic
Processor (Simulating Photorealistic Graphics) + Fast Sound Processor (multi-
surround sound) = Cinematic Games
A telecommunication + Internet + GPS + a camera + computer alike software and
hardware + SOC (system on a chip) design = convergent portable devices have
millions of possibilities in applications (e.g. iPhone)
In todays, Who foresaw these possibilities of synergy effect arising from convergent
endeavours in computer industry? Steven Job, Bill Gates...?

Pictorial
Technology in 1935
An ill-considered questions in 1935 -
whether photography and film are arts?
Two film theorists’ opinions(Abel Grance &
Werfel) were mentioned in the article
“Pictorial language has not yet matured
because our eyes have not yet adjusted to it”
and “The film has not yet realized its true
meaning, its real possibilities...”
Think about the camera technology using in
earliest twenties-century when the era
Benjamin living.
Black and white Man with a Movie Camera
(1926)
Mostly no sound

Presence in Time
and Space
The significance of presence - “The presence of the
original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity.”
What’s that meant?
We are now having this ongoing presentation and
lecture within this 2 hours (time) and classroom
(space). What would be different if we are having a
virtual online classroom in the Second Life?What if
teaching materials and teaching are scripted into an
A.I. virtual lecturer by a real lecturer before class?
What are the art value of a human being (the lecturer)
in a class room?

Authenticity
Lost of controllability - When an original art work is in
presence, it can be freely captured by camera at the angle or
distance at well. In contrast, after the image of the art work
was captured, its camera angle and compositions are fixed.
Lost of intimacy - “technical reproduction can put the copy
of the original into situations which would be out of reach
for the original itself” (p. 214)
Manual Reproduction (Actual) vs Process Reproduction
(Production) vs Photographic Reproduction (Post
production) (p.214)
The arising of new reproduction methods makes it harder
for us to identify the originality of art works.

Aura - Art Works -1
The unique phenomenon of a distance - e.g. walking
in the nature, feel the aura of the natural mountains,
sunlight...
Cult value or Ritual function - originally art works
were created for the religious purpose, they were
instruments of magic.
Exhibition value - environment conditions in
museum: spot lights casting on the objects.
Criticism on people who cannot distinguish the A figure of Guanyin from China
differences - “To pry an object from its shell, to in 12th to 13 Century
destroy its aura, is the mark of a perception whose
‘sense of the universal equality of things’...” (p.217)

Aura - Art Works -2
Problem of Accuracy
Colour
Scale
Texture
Cadence #1 (a short span of time) by Robert Owen (Australia, b.1937)
In total 259 x 838 cm

Aura on Human
Actors - 1
The portrait was the focal point of earliest photography,
viewing a portrait of love ones, absent or dead, offer a cult
value of the picture for remembrance.
Picture taken before the fleeting expression of human face
which constitutes the melancholy and incomparable beauty
When actors performing before camera, two consequences:
Need not respect the performance as an integral whole
Lacks the opportunity of the stage actor to adjust to the
audience during his performance

Aura on Human
Actors - 2
The audience’s identification is substituted by identification with he
camera - which means when stage actors become film actors, they
are not longer interactive with human audience but the camera
Stage and body of the actors are evaporated and vanished in front
of camera.
The pictorial technology remediate the stage performance, acting as
an agency of a new medium - “the projector will play with the actor
shadow before the public and the actor play before camera” (p.223)
Again, Benjamin tied the aura of human with presence. But he
didn’t deny that there is another kind of artificial aura of human on
screen. Can we say there is a “digital” aura in our digital photo?

Aura on Human
Actors - 3
The image of ourselves in the camera or computer is
similar to the shadow ourselves in mirror.
It means that there is a distortion. Benjamin used the
feeling of strangeness and estrangement to describe
the distortion.
The cult value emanates from a human body - e.g.
People like to worship movie stars as watching them in
movie is not real enough.
Same principles of aura on art works can apply here:
Accuracy of human skin’s texture, colour and body
scales are distorted.

Advantages of
Mechanical
Reproduction - 1
“Photographic reproduction, with the aid of Certain
Processes, such as enlargement or slow motion, can
capture images which escape natural vision.” (p.214)
Photograph become standard evidence for historical
occurrences (p220) e.g. for legal purposes
Developing Cinematography: Montage,
photomontage
A performance is no necessary to complete in a given
time-frame continually. Shots can be done a week
later and cutting together later.

Advantages of
Mechanical
Reproduction - 2
An opportunity for everyone to become a
“movies actor”
e.g. in Benjamin’s Era, Russian films
In today, the line between film producers and
consumers are more blur than before because
of the widely availability of affordable digital
camera and the internet acting as a “free”
distribution channel.

Case Studies
Bill Viola’s Video - Using simple techniques to
express his philosophical and religious views
about human being, in particular, perception on
human body.
Eye Pet - Using the Eye Toy Technology
Metal Gear Solid 4 - Integrating
cinematography for story telling in game
Tom Tykwer - Run Lora Run - Using
cinematography to create game-alike experience

Historical Timeline
There is no single person invented camera equipments
for mechanical reproduction
1825 - French inventor - Nicephore Niepce successfully
produced the first permanent chemical photograph.
1900 - 2008 - Visual Effects: 100 Years of Inspiration
1926 - In Russia, Dziga Vertov, filmed Man with a Movie
Camera (a silent film)
1935 - Benjamin, Walter - The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction.

Historical Timeline
1956 - The first video camera that can record both
images and sound was commercially sold by Ampex
1971 - Sony sold their first video camera
1998 - Run Lola Run, Directed by Tom Tykwer
2006 - Release of Sony Playstation 3 (a video game
console was claimed to have cinematic graphics
capability)
2008 - Release of Metal Gear Solid 4 (a video game)
2010? - An augmented reality game - Eye Pet