CTS LECTURE - TECHNOLOGY        -       REPRODUCTION       -       VALUE 

                                   photography

                                   new techniques

W.BENJAMIN - The work of art in the ago of mechanical reproduction , 1936.

In pairs of two , analyse and explain a section in the peice of writing that has been given, SECTION 5 AND 6. 

V

Works of art are received and valued on different planes. Two polar types stand out; with one, the accent

is on the cult value; with the other, on the exhibition value of the work. Artistic production begins with

ceremonial objects destined to serve in a cult. One may assume that what mattered was their existence,

not their being on view. The elk portrayed by the man of the Stone Age on the walls of his cave was

an instrument of magic. He did expose it to his fellow men, but in the main it was meant for the spirits.

Today the cult value would seem to demand that the work of art remain hidden. Certain statues of gods are

accessible only to the priest in the cella; certain Madonnas remain covered nearly all year round; certain

sculptures on medieval cathedrals are invisible to the spectator on ground level. With the emancipation of

the various art practices from ritual go increasing opportunities for the exhibition of their products. It is

easier to exhibit a portrait bust that can be sent here and there than to exhibit the statue of a divinity that

has its fixed place in the interior of a temple. The same holds for the painting as against the mosaic or

fresco that preceded it. And even though the public presentability of a mass originally may have been just

as great as that of a symphony, the latter originated at the moment when its public presentability promised

to surpass that of the mass.

With the different methods of technical reproduction of a work of art, its fitness for exhibition increased to

such an extent that the quantitative shift between its two poles turned into a qualitative transformation of

Walter Benjamin  The Work of Art in the Age. . .its nature. This is comparable to the situation of the work of art in prehistoric times when, by the absolute

emphasis on its cult value, it was, first and foremost, an instrument of magic. Only later did it come to be

recognized as a work of art. In the same way today, by the absolute emphasis on its exhibition value the

work of art becomes a creation with entirely new functions, among which the one we are conscious of, the

artistic function, later may be recognized as incidental. This much is certain: today photography and the

film are the most serviceable exemplifications of this new function.

VI

In photography, exhibition value begins to displace cult value all along the line. But cult value does not give

way without resistance. It retires into an ultimate retrenchment: the human countenance. It is no accident

that the portrait was the focal point of early photography. The cult of remembrance of loved ones, absent

or dead, offers a last refuse for the cult value of the picture. For the last time the aura emanates from the

early photographs in the fleeting expression of a human face. This is what constitutes their melancholy,

incomparable beauty. But as man withdraws from the photographic image, the exhibition value for the

first time shows its superiority to the ritual value. To have pinpointed this new stage constitutes the

incomparable significance of Atget

13

, who, around 1900, took photographs of deserted Paris streets. It

has quite justly been said of him that he photographed them like scenes of crime. The scene of a crime,

too, is deserted; it is photographed for the purpose of establishing evidence. With Atget, photographs

become standard evidence for historical occurrences, and acquire a hidden political significance. They

demand a specific kind of approach; free-floating contemplation is not appropriate to them. They stir the

viewer; he feels challenged by them in a new way. At the same time picture magazines begin to put up

signposts for him, right ones or wrong ones, no matter. For the first time, captions have become obligatory.

And it is clear that they have an altogether different character than the title of a painting. The directives

which the captions give to those looking at pictures in illustrated magazines soon become even more

explicit and more imperative in the film where the meaning of each single picture appears to be prescribed

by the sequence of all preceding one

V – The Magic of Art: Cult and Exhibition Value
One of art’s functions is its value: its “cult value” and its “exhibition value.”
•    Cult:  Originally, art was meant to be magical and hidden from the outside world, a “magical” projection of early man’s inner aspirations.
•    Exhibition: Modern “emancipation” of art has increased the chances for it to be on public display as means for profit and economy.
The shift between original “cult value” and modern “exhibition value” has thus transformed the overall quality of the art produced.

VI – The Portrait and Photograph
Exhibition value outweighs cult value only in early portraits.
•    Portraits from centuries ago maintain a “melancholy” aura about them.
•    Photographs do help with understanding historical events but don’t require the “free-floating contemplation” that a painting might invoke.