the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction (1936)

(363): "the transformation of the superstructure, which takes place far more slowly than that of the substructure, has taken more than half a century to manifest in all areas of culture the changi n the conditions of production..." what follows are "theses about the developmental tendencies of art under present conditions of production..."

(365): "the situations into which the product of mechanical reproduction can be brought may not touch the actual work of art, yet the quality of its presence is always depreciated."

(365-366): the notion of "aura," or what is lost in the reproduction process...

(367): key--"for the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual. to an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility.... but the instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed. instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice--politics."

(368): "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."

(368): "when the age of mechanical reproduction separated art from its basis in cult, the semblance of its autonomy disappeared forever. the resulting change in the function of art transcended the perspective of the century; for a long time it even escaped that of the twentieth century, which experienced the development of the film."

(370): "man has to operate ith his whole living person, yet forgoing its aura."

(371): "so long as the movie-makers' capital sets the fashion, as a rule no other revolutionary merit can be accredited to today's film than the promotion of a revolutionary criticism of traditional concepts of art."

(372): "the distinction between author and public is about to lose its basic character."

(373): important--"magician and surgeon compare to painter and cameraman. the painter maintains in his work a natural distance from reality, the cameraman penetrates deeply into its web. thus, for contemporary man the representation of reality by the film is incomparably more significant thatn that of the paitner, since it offers, precisely because of the theoroughgoing permeation of reality with mechanical equipment, an aspect of reality which is free of all equipment. and that is what one is entitled to ask from a work of art."

(373): "mechanical reproduction of art changes the reaction of the masses toward art. the reactionary attitude toward a picasso painting changes into the progressive reaction toward a chaplin movie. the progressive reaction is characterized by the direct, intimate fusion of visual and emotional enjoyment with the orientation of the expert."

(374): "painting simply is in no position to present an object for simultaneous collective experience, as it was possible for architecture at all times, for the epic poem in the past, and for the movie today.... thus the same public which responds in a progressive manner toward a grotesque film is bound to respond in a reactionary manner to surrealism."

(375): "then came the film and burst this prison-world asunder..." (!)

(375-376): the film and dadaism

(376-377): "clearly, this [referring to the haughty critique of film] is at bottom the same ancient lament that the masses seek distraction whereas art demands concentration from the spectator. that is a commonplace. the question remains whether it provides a platform for the analysis of the film. a closer look is needed here."

(377): "since, moreover, individuals are tempted to avoid such tasks, art will tackle the most difficult and most important ones where it is able to mobilize the masses. today it does so in the film. reception is in a state of distraction... the film makes the cult value recede into the background not only bu putting the public in the position of the critic, but also by the fact that at ht movies this position requires no attention. the public is an examiner, but an absent-minded one."

(378): important--"the growing proletarianization of modern man and the increasing formation of masses are two aspects of the same process. fascism attempts to organize the newly created proletarian masses without affecting the property structure which the masses strive to eliminate. fascism sees its salvation in giving these masses not their right but instead a chance ot express themselves."

(378): "all efforts to render politics aesthetic culminate in one thing: war."

(378): the Futurist Manifesto

(378): "the horrible features of imperialistic warfare are attributable to the discrepancy between the tremendous means of production and their inadequate utilization in th e process of production--in other words, to unemployment and the lack of markets."

(378): "Instead of draining rivers, society directs a human stream into a bed of trenches."

(379): "Its self-alienation has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order. This is the situation of politics which Fascism is rendering aesthetic. Communism responds by politicizing art."