Walter Benjamin The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Aura, for Benjamin, is the uniqueness of the

work of art as an object, as a presence, as an experience. It is something inaccessible and elusive, at the same time highly valued but deceptive and out of reach, and it was lost, according to the German thinker, with the advent of photography, mass culture, and mechanical reproduction of art. He 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 (220). Benjamin uses the analogy of the actual experience of nature as opposed to its contemplation in mechanically reproduced images, even those as realistic as the ones provided by photography and film. Aura is thus related to authenticity, and its loss is of the utmost importance in a political sense. Benjamin situated aura as a quality that only exists before and outside of commodity production and technological reproduction. In this respect, and despite their numerous disagreements, he seems to be in not too far a position from the one heralded by Adorno. The idea of uniqueness, creativity, and originality as divorced from commercialism is still pervasive as is the notion of the personal, immediate, real experience as intrinsically superior compared to the petty enjoyment of a mere copy. As stated above, for Benjamin, the aura is associated with authenticity, and it is lacking in modern cultural manifestations, an absence which is rather crucial in historical terms: [T]he 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 practicepolitics (224). Although it describes the way in whichthrough the introduction of aesthetics into the realm of political life that leads ultimately, and unavoidably, to warmass culture has become a means to an end for fascism, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction does see, at the same time, the possibility of a progressive use of technologically reproduced art. The masses can have reactionary responses to art, as was the case with Picasso, but also progressive ones, as with Chaplin. Fascism, according to the German thinker, renders politics aesthetic, as in the work of Marinetti and the futurists; Communism, he concludes, counterattacks by politicizing art (242). As is well known, Benjamin was especially optimistic regarding the emancipatory potential of cinema, but his framework can certainly be applied to popular music as well.