Book Report on The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

1. Walter Benjamin’s (2010) relatively short but complex essay, The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction, originally published in 1935, remains relevant and continues to
generate new insights. A major theme of the essay is technological change, with a focus on the
development and implications of film and television. Benjamin asks ontological, semantic, and
axiological questions: what is the nature of a copy of a work of art; what does it mean to
reproduce; and, what is the value of a reproduction? To reflect on Benjamin’s concept of
reproduction, it is useful to relate his text to the work of postmodern and contemporary artists.
Benjamin (2010) writes, “the presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of
authenticity” (p.13). This claim provides a context for critique of Benjamin Grosser’s (2011)
installation piece, Speed of Reality. Grosser’s installation consists of an arrangement of vaguely
Scandinavian living room furniture, with an HD television and snacks. However, this mundane
tableau becomes more complicated when one notices that the video feed to the television comes
from a series of cameras attached to the blank walls of the room containing the furniture. Custom
software generates randomized power rock background music that appears to be influenced by
motion inside the room. This parodies the emotional guidance suspenseful and dramatic music
provides on a television program as Grosser saunters into the room, sits on the couch, watches
himself sitting on the couch on the television, and then taps at the remote, gets up, and exits.
The crux of this parody is dependent on Benjamin’s statement: “the uniqueness of a work of art
is inseparable from its being imbedded in the fabric of tradition” (p.19). The humor which
makes Grosser’s piece unique extends from what it signifies to the viewer, recalling a cartoon
theme song or perhaps a cop drama. There are multiple levels of reproduction in this work.
First, there is the notion that the installation has been assembled and disassembled at multiple
sites. Next, there is Grosser’s performance of watching himself on television and the time
delayed video feed on the television of Grosser performing this activity. One might also
consider the reproductions required during translation of a work of art from one medium to
another, for example, conversion of photons striking the charge-coupled device inside a video
camera into binary, or relay of this data across the internet. Interpretation, the phenomenological
integration of sensory data with consciousness, might be considered another form of
reproduction.
Digital videos also play a role in the reading of a recent kinetic sculpture installed at the
Guggenheim in New York, Sun & Peng’s (2016) Can’t Help Myself. It consists of a cubical
space with an edge length of perhaps 25 feet. Two sides of this space are defined by large panes
of transparent glass through which one may view the industrial robot inside as one might regard
an animal in a zoo exhibit. This device is programed to minimize the distance a pool of viscous
fluid the color of blood can flow across the smooth white floor away from the arm. Like an
animal in a filthy cage the machine provokes sympathy; it is indeed pitiful, coated in layers of
dried fluid which it has also spattered across the walls of its container. Sometimes the arm
writhes and gestures as if to suggest the agony of its Sisyphean task. The viewers become
spectators, and this spectacle encourages documentation. As the crowd interacts with the piece
individuals stop to generate photographs and video recordings. In terms of socially mediated
experience this artwork is like a viral infection. The spectacle functions like an infected
lymphocyte, which by provoking an endless series of recordings propagates itself across media

2. and social networks. This piece works with the concept that “mechanical reproduction of art
changes the reaction of the masses toward art” (Benjamin, 2010, p. 37.).
The reproductive processes described above may lead one to question the purpose of all of these
copies. The conceptual contortions required to follow the series of reproductions implied by
these pieces also may lead to a sense of meaninglessness. To amplify these concerns, consider
the distinction in reproduction between repetition and replication evident in The Andy Warhol
Diaries (Warhol, 1989). Warhol dictated the entries of this 800 page text to Pat Hackett over the
course of 11 years. Repetition is apparent in the consistent string of entries nearly every
weekday over this time period. Replication is evident in the transcription process as well as the
relative sameness from entry to entry. Consider this entry near the start of the diary:
Monday, May 23, 1977
Tina Fredericks called and said that Tommy Schippers wouldn’t be renting our
place in Montauk. His wife died of cancer and now he has the same kind and that
scared me – I guess you can catch it from other people (p. 45).
Note its similarity with this one recorded just eight days before Warhol’s death after gallbladder
surgery:
Saturday, February 14, 1987
A really short day. Nothing much happened. I went shopping, did errands, came
home, talked on the phone… Yeah, that’s all. Really. It was a short day (p. 804).
The journal records, to the point of nihilism, a multitudinous series of events, parties, famous
names, and shopping, and describes Warhol’s commercial and transactional artistic process.
Benjamin (2010) explains: “even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one
element; its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be”
(p.13). This truth of this statement becomes apparent if one contemplates Warhol’s life as a
work of art, and The Andy Warhol Diaries as its reproduction.

3. References
Benjamin, W. (2010). The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction. Middletown, DE:
Prism Key Press.
Grosser, B. (2011). Speed of Reality [installation of computer, cameras, custom software,
composed audio track, HD television, couch, TV table, coffee table, rug, lamp, pretzels,
soda can]. Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago, IL.
Sun, Y. & Peng, Y. (2016) Can’t Help Myself [Kuka industrial robot, stainless steel and rubber,
cellulose ether in colored water, lighting grid with Cognex visual-recognition sensors,
and polycarbonate wall with aluminum frame]. Guggenheim, New York, NY.
Warhol, A. (1989). The Andy Warhol diaries. P. Hackett (Ed.). New York, NY: Warner Books.