class: title, fogscreen, no-footer background-image: url(bank-phrom-Tzm3Oyu_6sk-unsplash.jpg) -- # Visual Technologies, Reproduction,<br />and the Copy: Part 1<br />October 19, 2022 --- class: compact # Review ### Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” * What concepts need clarifying? * aura * cult value vs exhibition value * optical unconscious * How would you summarize Benjamin's argument about the _effect_ mechanical reproduction has on a work of art? * Why might this be important now? ??? Benjamin argues that mass reproduction substitutes a mass existence for a unique one, so it simultaneously diminishes the aura of the work of art but brings it closer to the masses. aura “the here and now of the work of art—its unique existence in a particular place.” cult value -- being hidden, singular // exhibition value - being on display, being seen our senses are historical, and deeply tied to the technologies with which we interact with and represent the world --- # Benjamin's "Project" * Occasion -- * A transformation in the <span style="text-decoration: underline">**capitalist mode of production**</span> (the rise of industrial mass production), associated with alienation and de-skilling of the proletariat masses. -- * Culture (the superstructure) reflects changes in the (economic) base, but more slowly. -- * Benjamin’s Goal: “defining the tendencies of art under the present conditions of production” (p. 252) --- # Key Concept - _Economic Determinism_ The idea that the economic "base" determines everything else (the "superstructure": culture, ideology, social relations) --- class: center # Late Capitalism <iframe width="90%" height="80%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O7zZPqar34w" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> --- class: title # Technological Determinism ??? Compare to economic determinism (Marxism) --- class: center roomy <br><br> <q>The medium is the message.</q> <q>Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media with which people communicate than by the content of the communication.</q> — Marshall McLuhan --- class: roomy # Assumptions * The technology of a given society is a fundamental determinant (or cause) of the form of that society. * Technology is _autonomous_ * Changes in technology are the primary drivers of change in the society. --- class: img-caption no-footer <br> Addie Wagenknecht, _Black Hawk Paint_ (2008) ??? Discuss: why this painting? autonomous technology Overall fear that technology is driving cultural, social, political economic change without our control (Remember -- modernity installed "man" as the locus of control) --- class: compact center # Copy Culture <br> Dafen, China --- class: compact, center, no-footer <iframe width="90%" height="90%" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ZbZDO5y43ZU" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> --- class: compact center # Mass Production <br> 20 - 50 paintings per day ??? 8 yuans per copy = $1.20 2000 - 3000 yuans per month (roughly $300-$450) DISCUSS Capitalism * exploitation? - van gogh specialist - factory production 50 paintings each day / yet freedom from factory work * globalization - * —> rise of moneyed classes in China — class habitus (Bourdieu) of creative labor (piano school) * —> Dutch bank, chinese & foreign clients, only invests US dollars - $100,000 minimum; Van Gogh as gift * —> US tourists * —> Visual culture of hotel chains --- class: img-right # Foreign Entrepreneurs  <br><br> ### pix2oils.com<br>(on Facebook) --- <br><br>  Copyists: _huà jiā_ (art workers) vs. _yì shù jiā_ (artists) ??? https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-village-60-worlds-paintings-future-jeopardy Copyists are not artists, but rather painters or "art workers" --- For Friday: **Nasher Tour for Paper #2**<br /><span style="color:red">*** MEET IN THE NASHER MUSEUM LOBBY ***</span> * Guided tour of the *[Roy Lichtenstein: History in the Making, 1948 – 1960](https://nasher.duke.edu/exhibitions/roy-lichtenstein-history-in-the-making-1948-1960/)* exhibition, Nasher's "[study storage](https://nasher.duke.edu/collection-research/)," and the exhibition *[Beyond the Surface](https://nasher.duke.edu/exhibitions/beyond-the-surface-collage-mixed-media-and-textile-works-from-the-collection/)* * Bring only pencils, paper * Volunteer needed * Complete Quiz #5 by 11:59 PM