Walter Benjamin and art

Walter Benjamin believed that art could never be authentically reproduced. Replication of art in Walter Benjamin’s mind undermines the authenticity and uniqueness of the original work, therefore digital media would probably not be considered art to Walter Benjamin. He also believed that painting's were more authentic than films, or photographs. Digital media is lots of replications of the same thing over a wide spread area, so in Benjamin's mind-it's very far from art.

Now that anyone can make "art" on the computer, I think that it can go two ways for professional artists. One way that it can go is that people will start appreciating digital art more, because it may be more accessible or more easily made...like more people can be artists when it comes to digital art. On the other hand, professional artists' art may become more valuable because it may become more scarce and unique too. But at the end of the day, who can judge what is a better piece of art, or even what art is exactly-art is different to everyone.

I do not think a photoshopped image is "authentic" because its a version of something else-just altered. The definition is "not false or copied; genuine; real"-so I don't think it's authentic because its based off a copy of an image.

I think digital "things" can have an aura, it just depends on who is looking at the image. I believe that someone can think a digital picture is just amazing, and other's can think of it as an ordinary picture. It goes back to my belief that no one can judge what art is anyways-anything can be art.