tote inspired by Walter Benjamin's article

Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Tote Bag
haha! ade gak orang nak buat bag pasal walter benjo ni pnye article kan..

quoted from Design Milk:
“If you haven’t been able to stomach Walter Benjamin’s manifesto on art and aura by text, create the illusion that you have through tote."

last week, for Media Aesthetics, we had to submit a 1000 words essay on our reaction towards the movie 'Shadow Magic' (2000) directed by Anne Hu and the similarities between some scenes in the film and what Walter said about 'aura' and all.. so, this is my reaction essay.. i did it 1 day before.. so, i just give my simple views on it..

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Let us discuss about the Walter Benjamin’s theory about the work of art looses its “aura”. I have a respect for Benjamin’s theory but, there were some parts of what he wrote was true as well as there were some things which, I have to say, not entirely right.

“One might subsume the eliminated element in the term “aura” and go on to say: that which writers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art.”
- Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)

Above statement was the evidence of Benjamin saying the work of art is loosing its “aura”. The “aura” he was talking about was defined as:

“... the unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be.”
- Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)

It is true that the feeling is not the same when you view something valuable through a magazine or website, though we still cannot change the emotions and thoughts that we have about that particular valuable thing. This reminds me about one of the last scene in Shadow Magic movie where the audience were captivated by the view from the top of The Great Wall of China.


“Those mountains... Those rivers, how it sings… The horizon… It seems to extend forever… That’s neat!”
- Captivated cinema audience, Shadow Magic (2000)

Though the audiences were not really standing at the peak of the landmark, they were still awed by the scene. This is because they were grateful enough to be given the opportunity to see what they have never seen or might not see everyday. In a way, the children get to be educated by knowing more about the geographical and important landmark in their country. Therefore, the “aura” of the landmark is still there, only it is far away. Nevertheless, we can still see the main point that Liu and Richard Wallace intended the audience to see based on what the view the have gathered while making the film.

Benjamin also said that art derives from the ritual services:

“We know that the earliest artworks originated in the service of a ritual – first the magical, then the religious kind.”
- Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)

The ritual service he was talking about here was obviously referring to the most primitive human paintings on the cave walls as long as 25,000-30,000 years BP.

Benjamin also said that human always misunderstood about occurrences of something new is made by magic:

“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.”
- Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)

This proclamation suits the scene in Shadow Magic when Liu tried to attract the people in the streets to see the Shadow Magic themselves by saying “Seeing is believing”. One of the interested young man asked “Is it magic?” and Liu replied “It’s better than magic!” There was also another scene from the movie when an old servant of Lord Tan came to him and reported that his revenue has dropped because of the new western invention “Shadow Magic” and claimed that the westerner plays “ghostly tricks” to charm the people in their town. This shows that Benjamin was right about the early civilizations thought of something new is caused by magic.

Based on these findings, I think that it is good that they were exposed to a something different that would bring a lot of benefits for their civilizations. Imagine if Liu was not there trying to convince everyone to watch Shadow Magic by themselves. People would not believe it and thought it is something ridiculous which the westerner tries to impress them with. The Chinese would be outdated! Luckily, this didn’t happen. So, what I am trying to imply here is that we should keep our minds open to new possibilities and not just hiding under the rock.

Benjamin also wrote in his article about the new photography standards content some hidden political agenda behind it:

“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...”
- Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)

Based on this fact, I do have something to show you. It is about a Veet ad I found on the internet that vowed to these Benjamin’s exact words:


Veet Newspaper Ad - Goodbye Bush from Creative Repository
This ad kind of plays around people’s political views on US’s current president, Barack Obama and US’s former president, George W. Bush. From this we know that photography and print ad is not just an art. It can also be used as a propaganda tool and for the “classless society” (as what Benjamin refers the common people to) to gain profits for. Yet, clever ads do work! It is something like that make the brand popular and increase it’s customers.

All in all, I am glad that I was given the opportunity to watch the movie Shadow Magic. I never knew the history of how moving pictures came into the light of the people in China. The story teaches me a lot about pursuing what we love most and it might end up in history as the good old Jewelry Tower said:

“We cannot escape what drives us”
- Jewelry Tower, Shadow Magic (2000)

Based on this quote, it clearly shows us that we have no authorities in changing the direction we are heading in this world. If the work of art were revolutionized in the age of Mechanical Reproduction, we simply cannot escape these circumstances. It would be like jumping off a running vehicle. Hence, we should just keep up with the pace and tag along. Not to mention that we need to be careful of the revolution too as it can tarnish our traditional culture on the way.