The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Walter Benjamin (1936)

Our fine arts were developed, their types and uses were established, in times very different from the present, by men whose
power of ation upon thin!s was insi!nifiant in omparison with ours" But the ama#in! !rowth of our tehni$ues, the
adaptability and preision they have attained, the ideas and habits they are reatin!, ma%e it a ertainty that profound han!es
are impendin! in the anient raft of the Beautiful" &n all the arts there is a physial omponent whih an no lon!er be
onsidered or treated as it used to be, whih annot remain unaffeted by our modern %nowled!e and power" 'or the last twenty
years neither matter nor spae nor time has been what it was from time immemorial" We must e(pet !reat innovations to
transform the entire tehni$ue of the arts, thereby affetin! artisti invention itself and perhaps even brin!in! about an ama#in!
han!e in our very notion of art")
*aul +al,ry, *i-es sur ./0rt, 1931
.e 1on$uete de l/ubi$uite
Preface
When 2ar( undertoo% his riti$ue of the apitalisti mode of prodution, this mode was in its infany" 2ar( direted his efforts
in suh a way as to !ive them pro!nosti value" 3e went ba% to the basi onditions underlyin! apitalisti prodution and
throu!h his presentation showed what ould be e(peted of apitalism in the future" 4he result was that one ould e(pet it not
only to e(ploit the proletariat with inreasin! intensity, but ultimately to reate onditions whih would ma%e it possible to
abolish apitalism itself"
4he transformation of the superstruture, whih ta%es plae far more slowly than that of the substruture, has ta%en more than
half a entury to manifest in all areas of ulture the han!e in the onditions of prodution" Only today an it be indiated what
form this has ta%en" 1ertain pro!nosti re$uirements should be met by these statements" 3owever, theses about the art of the
proletariat after its assumption of power or about the art of a lassless soiety would have less bearin! on these demands than
theses about the developmental tendenies of art under present onditions of prodution" 4heir dialeti is no less notieable in
the superstruture than in the eonomy" &t would therefore be wron! to underestimate the value of suh theses as a weapon"
4hey brush aside a number of outmoded onepts, suh as reativity and !enius, eternal value and mystery 5 onepts whose
unontrolled (and at present almost unontrollable) appliation would lead to a proessin! of data in the 'asist sense" 4he
onepts whih are introdued into the theory of art in what follows differ from the more familiar terms in that they are
ompletely useless for the purposes of 'asism" 4hey are, on the other hand, useful for the formulation of revolutionary
demands in the politis of art"
I
&n priniple a wor% of art has always been reproduible" 2an6made artifats ould always be imitated by men" 7eplias were
made by pupils in pratie of their raft, by masters for diffusin! their wor%s, and, finally, by third parties in the pursuit of !ain"
2ehanial reprodution of a wor% of art, however, represents somethin! new" 3istorially, it advaned intermittently and in
leaps at lon! intervals, but with aelerated intensity" 4he 8ree%s %new only two proedures of tehnially reproduin! wor%s
of art9 foundin! and stampin!" Bron#es, terra ottas, and oins were the only art wor%s whih they ould produe in $uantity"
0ll others were uni$ue and ould not be mehanially reprodued" With the woodut !raphi art beame mehanially
reproduible for the first time, lon! before sript beame reproduible by print" 4he enormous han!es whih printin!, the
mehanial reprodution of writin!, has brou!ht about in literature are a familiar story" 3owever, within the phenomenon whih
we are here e(aminin! from the perspetive of world history, print is merely a speial, thou!h partiularly important, ase"
:urin! the 2iddle 0!es en!ravin! and ethin! were added to the woodut; at the be!innin! of the nineteenth entury
litho!raphy made its appearane" With litho!raphy the tehni$ue of reprodution reahed an essentially new sta!e" 4his muh
more diret proess was distin!uished by the train! of the desi!n on a stone rather than its inision on a blo% of wood or its
ethin! on a opperplate and permitted !raphi art for the first time to put its produts on the mar%et, not only in lar!e numbers
as hitherto, but also in daily han!in! forms" .itho!raphy enabled !raphi art to illustrate everyday life, and it be!an to %eep
pae with printin!" But only a few deades after its invention, litho!raphy was surpassed by photo!raphy" 'or the first time in
the proess of pitorial reprodution, photo!raphy freed the hand of the most important artisti funtions whih heneforth
devolved only upon the eye loo%in! into a lens" <ine the eye pereives more swiftly than the hand an draw, the proess of
1
pitorial reprodution was aelerated so enormously that it ould %eep pae with speeh" 0 film operator shootin! a sene in
the studio aptures the ima!es at the speed of an ator/s speeh" =ust as litho!raphy virtually implied the illustrated newspaper,
so did photo!raphy foreshadow the sound film" 4he tehnial reprodution of sound was ta%led at the end of the last entury"
4hese onver!ent endeavors made preditable a situation whih *aul +alery pointed up in this sentene9
>=ust as water, !as, and eletriity are brou!ht into our houses from far off to satisfy our needs in response to a minimal effort,
so we shall be supplied with visual or auditory ima!es, whih will appear and disappear at a simple movement of the hand,
hardly more than a si!n")
0round 19?? tehnial reprodution had reahed a standard that not only permitted it to reprodue all transmitted wor%s of art
and thus to ause the most profound han!e in their impat upon the publi; it also had aptured a plae of its own amon! the
artisti proesses" 'or the study of this standard nothin! is more revealin! than the nature of the reperussions that these two
different manifestations 5 the reprodution of wor%s of art and the art of the film 5 have had on art in its traditional form"
II
@ven the most perfet reprodution of a wor% of art is la%in! in one element9 its presene in time and spae, its uni$ue
e(istene at the plae where it happens to be" 4his uni$ue e(istene of the wor% of art determined the history to whih it was
subjet throu!hout the time of its e(istene" 4his inludes the han!es whih it may have suffered in physial ondition over the
years as well as the various han!es in its ownership" 4he traes of the first an be revealed only by hemial or physial
analyses whih it is impossible to perform on a reprodution; han!es of ownership are subjet to a tradition whih must be
traed from the situation of the ori!inal"
4he presene of the ori!inal is the prere$uisite to the onept of authentiity" 1hemial analyses of the patina of a bron#e an
help to establish this, as does the proof that a !iven manusript of the 2iddle 0!es stems from an arhive of the fifteenth
entury" 4he whole sphere of authentiity is outside tehnial 5 and, of ourse, not only tehnial 5 reproduibility" 1onfronted
with its manual reprodution, whih was usually branded as a for!ery, the ori!inal preserved all its authority; not so vis6A6vis
tehnial reprodution" 4he reason is twofold" 'irst, proess reprodution is more independent of the ori!inal than manual
reprodution" 'or e(ample, in photo!raphy, proess reprodution an brin! out those aspets of the ori!inal that are
unattainable to the na%ed eye yet aessible to the lens, whih is adjustable and hooses its an!le at will" 0nd photo!raphi
reprodution, with the aid of ertain proesses, suh as enlar!ement or slow motion, an apture ima!es whih esape natural
vision" <eondly, tehnial reprodution an put the opy of the ori!inal into situations whih would be out of reah for the
ori!inal itself" 0bove all, it enables the ori!inal to meet the beholder halfway, be it in the form of a photo!raph or a phono!raph
reord" 4he athedral leaves its loale to be reeived in the studio of a lover of art; the horal prodution, performed in an
auditorium or in the open air, resounds in the drawin! room"
4he situations into whih the produt of mehanial reprodution an be brou!ht may not touh the atual wor% of art, yet the
$uality of its presene is always depreiated" 4his holds not only for the art wor% but also, for instane, for a landsape whih
passes in review before the spetator in a movie" &n the ase of the art objet, a most sensitive nuleus 5 namely, its authentiity
5 is interfered with whereas no natural objet is vulnerable on that sore" 4he authentiity of a thin! is the essene of all that is
transmissible from its be!innin!, ran!in! from its substantive duration to its testimony to the history whih it has e(periened"
<ine the historial testimony rests on the authentiity, the former, too, is jeopardi#ed by reprodution when substantive
duration eases to matter" 0nd what is really jeopardi#ed when the historial testimony is affeted is the authority of the objet"
One mi!ht subsume the eliminated element in the term >aura) and !o on to say9 that whih withers in the a!e of mehanial
reprodution is the aura of the wor% of art" 4his is a symptomati proess whose si!nifiane points beyond the realm of art"
One mi!ht !enerali#e by sayin!9 the tehni$ue of reprodution detahes the reprodued objet from the domain of tradition" By
ma%in! many reprodutions it substitutes a plurality of opies for a uni$ue e(istene" 0nd in permittin! the reprodution to
meet the beholder or listener in his own partiular situation, it reativates the objet reprodued" 4hese two proesses lead to a
tremendous shatterin! of tradition whih is the obverse of the ontemporary risis and renewal of man%ind" Both proesses are
intimately onneted with the ontemporary mass movements" 4heir most powerful a!ent is the film" &ts soial si!nifiane,
partiularly in its most positive form, is inoneivable without its destrutive, atharti aspet, that is, the li$uidation of the
traditional value of the ultural herita!e" 4his phenomenon is most palpable in the !reat historial films" &t e(tends to ever new
positions" &n 19BC 0bel 8ane e(laimed enthusiastially9
2
><ha%espeare, 7embrandt, Beethoven will ma%e films""" all le!ends, all mytholo!ies and all myths, all founders of reli!ion, and
the very reli!ions""" await their e(posed resurretion, and the heroes rowd eah other at the !ate")
*resumably without intendin! it, he issued an invitation to a far6reahin! li$uidation"
III
:urin! lon! periods of history, the mode of human sense pereption han!es with humanity/s entire mode of e(istene" 4he
manner in whih human sense pereption is or!ani#ed, the medium in whih it is aomplished, is determined not only by
nature but by historial irumstanes as well" 4he fifth entury, with its !reat shifts of population, saw the birth of the late
7oman art industry and the +ienna 8enesis, and there developed not only an art different from that of anti$uity but also a new
%ind of pereption" 4he sholars of the +iennese shool, 7ie!l and Wi%hoff, who resisted the wei!ht of lassial tradition
under whih these later art forms had been buried, were the first to draw onlusions from them onernin! the or!ani#ation of
pereption at the time" 3owever far6reahin! their insi!ht, these sholars limited themselves to showin! the si!nifiant, formal
hallmar% whih harateri#ed pereption in late 7oman times" 4hey did not attempt 5 and, perhaps, saw no way 5 to show the
soial transformations e(pressed by these han!es of pereption" 4he onditions for an analo!ous insi!ht are more favorable in
the present" 0nd if han!es in the medium of ontemporary pereption an be omprehended as deay of the aura, it is possible
to show its soial auses"
4he onept of aura whih was proposed above with referene to historial objets may usefully be illustrated with referene to
the aura of natural ones" We define the aura of the latter as the uni$ue phenomenon of a distane, however lose it may be" &f,
while restin! on a summer afternoon, you follow with your eyes a mountain ran!e on the hori#on or a branh whih asts its
shadow over you, you e(periene the aura of those mountains, of that branh" 4his ima!e ma%es it easy to omprehend the
soial bases of the ontemporary deay of the aura" &t rests on two irumstanes, both of whih are related to the inreasin!
si!nifiane of the masses in ontemporary life" Damely, the desire of ontemporary masses to brin! thin!s >loser) spatially
and humanly, whih is just as ardent as their bent toward overomin! the uni$ueness of every reality by aeptin! its
reprodution" @very day the ur!e !rows stron!er to !et hold of an objet at very lose ran!e by way of its li%eness, its
reprodution" Enmista%ably, reprodution as offered by piture ma!a#ines and newsreels differs from the ima!e seen by the
unarmed eye" Eni$ueness and permanene are as losely lin%ed in the latter as are transitoriness and reproduibility in the
former" 4o pry an objet from its shell, to destroy its aura, is the mar% of a pereption whose >sense of the universal e$uality of
thin!s) has inreased to suh a de!ree that it e(trats it even from a uni$ue objet by means of reprodution" 4hus is manifested
in the field of pereption what in the theoretial sphere is notieable in the inreasin! importane of statistis" 4he adjustment
of reality to the masses and of the masses to reality is a proess of unlimited sope, as muh for thin%in! as for pereption"
IV
4he uni$ueness of a wor% of art is inseparable from its bein! imbedded in the fabri of tradition" 4his tradition itself is
thorou!hly alive and e(tremely han!eable" 0n anient statue of +enus, for e(ample, stood in a different traditional onte(t
with the 8ree%s, who made it an objet of veneration, than with the leris of the 2iddle 0!es, who viewed it as an ominous
idol" Both of them, however, were e$ually onfronted with its uni$ueness, that is, its aura" Ori!inally the onte(tual inte!ration
of art in tradition found its e(pression in the ult" We %now that the earliest art wor%s ori!inated in the servie of a ritual 5 first
the ma!ial, then the reli!ious %ind" &t is si!nifiant that the e(istene of the wor% of art with referene to its aura is never
entirely separated from its ritual funtion" &n other words, the uni$ue value of the >authenti) wor% of art has its basis in ritual,
the loation of its ori!inal use value" 4his ritualisti basis, however remote, is still reo!ni#able as seulari#ed ritual even in the
most profane forms of the ult of beauty" 4he seular ult of beauty, developed durin! the 7enaissane and prevailin! for three
enturies, learly showed that ritualisti basis in its deline and the first deep risis whih befell it" With the advent of the first
truly revolutionary means of reprodution, photo!raphy, simultaneously with the rise of soialism, art sensed the approahin!
risis whih has beome evident a entury later" 0t the time, art reated with the dotrine of lart pour lart, that is, with a
theolo!y of art" 4his !ave rise to what mi!ht be alled a ne!ative theolo!y in the form of the idea of >pure) art, whih not only
denied any soial funtion of art but also any ate!ori#in! by subjet matter" (&n poetry, 2allarme was the first to ta%e this
position")
0n analysis of art in the a!e of mehanial reprodution must do justie to these relationships, for they lead us to an all6
important insi!ht9 for the first time in world history, mehanial reprodution emanipates the wor% of art from its parasitial
3
dependene on ritual" 4o an ever !reater de!ree the wor% of art reprodued beomes the wor% of art desi!ned for
reproduibility" 'rom a photo!raphi ne!ative, for e(ample, one an ma%e any number of prints; to as% for the >authenti) print
ma%es no sense" But the instant the riterion of authentiity eases to be appliable to artisti prodution, the total funtion of
art is reversed" &nstead of bein! based on ritual, it be!ins to be based on another pratie 5 politis"
V
Wor%s of art are reeived and valued on different planes" 4wo polar types stand out; with one, the aent is on the ult value;
with the other, on the e(hibition value of the wor%" 0rtisti prodution be!ins with eremonial objets destined to serve in a
ult" One may assume that what mattered was their e(istene, not their bein! on view" 4he el% portrayed by the man of the
<tone 0!e on the walls of his ave was an instrument of ma!i" 3e did e(pose it to his fellow men, but in the main it was meant
for the spirits" 4oday the ult value would seem to demand that the wor% of art remain hidden" 1ertain statues of !ods are
aessible only to the priest in the ella; ertain 2adonnas remain overed nearly all year round; ertain sulptures on medieval
athedrals are invisible to the spetator on !round level" With the emanipation of the various art praties from ritual !o
inreasin! opportunities for the e(hibition of their produts" &t is easier to e(hibit a portrait bust that an be sent here and there
than to e(hibit the statue of a divinity that has its fi(ed plae in the interior of a temple" 4he same holds for the paintin! as
a!ainst the mosai or freso that preeded it" 0nd even thou!h the publi presentability of a mass ori!inally may have been just
as !reat as that of a symphony, the latter ori!inated at the moment when its publi presentability promised to surpass that of the
mass"
With the different methods of tehnial reprodution of a wor% of art, its fitness for e(hibition inreased to suh an e(tent that
the $uantitative shift between its two poles turned into a $ualitative transformation of its nature" 4his is omparable to the
situation of the wor% of art in prehistori times when, by the absolute emphasis on its ult value, it was, first and foremost, an
instrument of ma!i" Only later did it ome to be reo!ni#ed as a wor% of art" &n the same way today, by the absolute emphasis
on its e(hibition value the wor% of art beomes a reation with entirely new funtions, amon! whih the one we are onsious
of, the artisti funtion, later may be reo!ni#ed as inidental" 4his muh is ertain9 today photo!raphy and the film are the
most servieable e(emplifiations of this new funtion"
VI
&n photo!raphy, e(hibition value be!ins to displae ult value all alon! the line" But ult value does not !ive way without
resistane" &t retires into an ultimate retrenhment9 the human ountenane" &t is no aident that the portrait was the foal point
of early photo!raphy" 4he ult of remembrane of loved ones, absent or dead, offers a last refu!e for the ult value of the
piture" 'or the last time the aura emanates from the early photo!raphs in the fleetin! e(pression of a human fae" 4his is what
onstitutes their melanholy, inomparable beauty" But as man withdraws from the photo!raphi ima!e, the e(hibition value for
the first time shows its superiority to the ritual value" 4o have pinpointed this new sta!e onstitutes the inomparable
si!nifiane of 0t!et, who, around 19??, too% photo!raphs of deserted *aris streets" &t has $uite justly been said of him that he
photo!raphed them li%e senes of rime" 4he sene of a rime, too, is deserted; it is photo!raphed for the purpose of
establishin! evidene" With 0t!et, photo!raphs beome standard evidene for historial ourrenes, and a$uire a hidden
politial si!nifiane" 4hey demand a speifi %ind of approah; free6floatin! ontemplation is not appropriate to them" 4hey
stir the viewer; he feels hallen!ed by them in a new way" 0t the same time piture ma!a#ines be!in to put up si!nposts for
him, ri!ht ones or wron! ones, no matter" 'or the first time, aptions have beome obli!atory" 0nd it is lear that they have an
alto!ether different harater than the title of a paintin!" 4he diretives whih the aptions !ive to those loo%in! at pitures in
illustrated ma!a#ines soon beome even more e(pliit and more imperative in the film where the meanin! of eah sin!le piture
appears to be presribed by the se$uene of all preedin! ones"
VII
4he nineteenth6entury dispute as to the artisti value of paintin! versus photo!raphy today seems devious and onfused" 4his
does not diminish its importane, however; if anythin!, it underlines it" 4he dispute was in fat the symptom of a historial
transformation the universal impat of whih was not reali#ed by either of the rivals" When the a!e of mehanial reprodution
separated art from its basis in ult, the semblane of its autonomy disappeared forever" 4he resultin! han!e in the funtion of
art transended the perspetive of the entury; for a lon! time it even esaped that of the twentieth entury, whih e(periened
the development of the film" @arlier muh futile thou!ht had been devoted to the $uestion of whether photo!raphy is an art" 4he
4
primary $uestion 5 whether the very invention of photo!raphy had not transformed the entire nature of art 5 was not raised"
<oon the film theoretiians as%ed the same ill6onsidered $uestion with re!ard to the film" But the diffiulties whih
photo!raphy aused traditional aesthetis were mere hild/s play as ompared to those raised by the film" Whene the
insensitive and fored harater of early theories of the film" 0bel 8ane, for instane, ompares the film with hiero!lyphs9
>3ere, by a remar%able re!ression, we have ome ba% to the level of e(pression of the @!yptians """ *itorial lan!ua!e has not
yet matured beause our eyes have not yet adjusted to it" 4here is as yet insuffiient respet for, insuffiient ult of, what it
e(presses") Or, in the words of <,verin62ars9 >What art has been !ranted a dream more poetial and more real at the same
timeF 0pproahed in this fashion the film mi!ht represent an inomparable means of e(pression" Only the most hi!h6minded
persons, in the most perfet and mysterious moments of their lives, should be allowed to enter its ambiene") 0le(andre 0rnou(
onludes his fantasy about the silent film with the $uestion9 >:o not all the bold desriptions we have !iven amount to the
definition of prayerG) &t is instrutive to note how their desire to lass the film amon! the >arts) fores these theoretiians to
read ritual elements into it 5 with a stri%in! la% of disretion" Het when these speulations were published, films li%e LOpinion
publique and The Gold Rush had already appeared" 4his, however, did not %eep 0bel 8ane from adduin! hiero!lyphs for
purposes of omparison, nor <,verin62ars from spea%in! of the film as one mi!ht spea% of paintin!s by 'ra 0n!elio"
1harateristially, even today ultrareationary authors !ive the film a similar onte(tual si!nifiane 5 if not an outri!ht sared
one, then at least a supernatural one" 1ommentin! on 2a( 7einhardt/s film version of A Midsummer Nights Dream, Werfel
states that undoubtedly it was the sterile opyin! of the e(terior world with its streets, interiors, railroad stations, restaurants,
motorars, and beahes whih until now had obstruted the elevation of the film to the realm of art" >4he film has not yet
reali#ed its true meanin!, its real possibilities """ these onsist in its uni$ue faulty to e(press by natural means and with
inomparable persuasiveness all that is fairyli%e, marvelous, supernatural")
VIII
4he artisti performane of a sta!e ator is definitely presented to the publi by the ator in person; that of the sreen ator,
however, is presented by a amera, with a twofold onse$uene" 4he amera that presents the performane of the film ator to
the publi need not respet the performane as an inte!ral whole" 8uided by the ameraman, the amera ontinually han!es its
position with respet to the performane" 4he se$uene of positional views whih the editor omposes from the material
supplied him onstitutes the ompleted film" &t omprises ertain fators of movement whih are in reality those of the amera,
not to mention speial amera an!les, lose6ups, et" 3ene, the performane of the ator is subjeted to a series of optial tests"
4his is the first onse$uene of the fat that the ator/s performane is presented by means of a amera" 0lso, the film ator
la%s the opportunity of the sta!e ator to adjust to the audiene durin! his performane, sine he does not present his
performane to the audiene in person" 4his permits the audiene to ta%e the position of a riti, without e(perienin! any
personal ontat with the ator" 4he audiene/s identifiation with the ator is really an identifiation with the amera"
1onse$uently the audiene ta%es the position of the amera; its approah is that of testin!" 4his is not the approah to whih
ult values may be e(posed"
IX
'or the film, what matters primarily is that the ator represents himself to the publi before the amera, rather than representin!
someone else" One of the first to sense the ator/s metamorphosis by this form of testin! was *irandello" 4hou!h his remar%s on
the subjet in his novel Si Gira were limited to the ne!ative aspets of the $uestion and to the silent film only, this hardly
impairs their validity" 'or in this respet, the sound film did not han!e anythin! essential" What matters is that the part is ated
not for an audiene but for a mehanial ontrivane 5 in the ase of the sound film, for two of them" >4he film ator,) wrote
*irandello, >feels as if in e(ile 5 e(iled not only from the sta!e but also from himself" With a va!ue sense of disomfort he feels
ine(pliable emptiness9 his body loses its orporeality, it evaporates, it is deprived of reality, life, voie, and the noises aused
by his movin! about, in order to be han!ed into a mute ima!e, fli%erin! an instant on the sreen, then vanishin! into
silene """" 4he projetor will play with his shadow before the publi, and he himself must be ontent to play before the
amera") 4his situation mi!ht also be harateri#ed as follows9 for the first time 5 and this is the effet of the film 5 man has to
operate with his whole livin! person, yet for!oin! its aura" 'or aura is tied to his presene; there an be no replia of it" 4he
aura whih, on the sta!e, emanates from 2abeth, annot be separated for the spetators from that of the ator" 3owever, the
sin!ularity of the shot in the studio is that the amera is substituted for the publi" 1onse$uently, the aura that envelops the ator
vanishes, and with it the aura of the fi!ure he portrays"
&t is not surprisin! that it should be a dramatist suh as *irandello who, in harateri#in! the film, inadvertently touhes on the
very risis in whih we see the theater" 0ny thorou!h study proves that there is indeed no !reater ontrast than that of the sta!e
5
play to a wor% of art that is ompletely subjet to or, li%e the film, founded in, mehanial reprodution" @(perts have lon!
reo!ni#ed that in the film >the !reatest effets are almost always obtained by Iatin!/ as little as possible """ ) &n 193B 7udolf
0rnheim saw >the latest trend """ in treatin! the ator as a sta!e prop hosen for its harateristis and""" inserted at the proper
plae") With this idea somethin! else is losely onneted" 4he sta!e ator identifies himself with the harater of his role" 4he
film ator very often is denied this opportunity" 3is reation is by no means all of a piee; it is omposed of many separate
performanes" Besides ertain fortuitous onsiderations, suh as ost of studio, availability of fellow players, d,or, et", there
are elementary neessities of e$uipment that split the ator/s wor% into a series of mountable episodes" &n partiular, li!htin!
and its installation re$uire the presentation of an event that, on the sreen, unfolds as a rapid and unified sene, in a se$uene of
separate shootin!s whih may ta%e hours at the studio; not to mention more obvious monta!e" 4hus a jump from the window
an be shot in the studio as a jump from a saffold, and the ensuin! fli!ht, if need be, an be shot wee%s later when outdoor
senes are ta%en" 'ar more parado(ial ases an easily be onstrued" .et us assume that an ator is supposed to be startled by a
%no% at the door" &f his reation is not satisfatory, the diretor an resort to an e(pedient9 when the ator happens to be at the
studio a!ain he has a shot fired behind him without his bein! forewarned of it" 4he fri!htened reation an be shot now and be
ut into the sreen version" Dothin! more stri%in!ly shows that art has left the realm of the >beautiful semblane) whih, so far,
had been ta%en to be the only sphere where art ould thrive"
X
4he feelin! of stran!eness that overomes the ator before the amera, as *irandello desribes it, is basially of the same %ind
as the estran!ement felt before one/s own ima!e in the mirror" But now the refleted ima!e has beome separable,
transportable" 0nd where is it transportedG Before the publi" Dever for a moment does the sreen ator ease to be onsious of
this fat" While fain! the amera he %nows that ultimately he will fae the publi, the onsumers who onstitute the mar%et"
4his mar%et, where he offers not only his labor but also his whole self, his heart and soul, is beyond his reah" :urin! the
shootin! he has as little ontat with it as any artile made in a fatory" 4his may ontribute to that oppression, that new an(iety
whih, aordin! to *irandello, !rips the ator before the amera" 4he film responds to the shrivelin! of the aura with an
artifiial build6up of the >personality) outside the studio" 4he ult of the movie star, fostered by the money of the film industry,
preserves not the uni$ue aura of the person but the >spell of the personality,) the phony spell of a ommodity" <o lon! as the
movie6ma%ers/ apital sets the fashion, as a rule no other revolutionary merit an be aredited to today/s film than the
promotion of a revolutionary ritiism of traditional onepts of art" We do not deny that in some ases today/s films an also
promote revolutionary ritiism of soial onditions, even of the distribution of property" 3owever, our present study is no more
speifially onerned with this than is the film prodution of Western @urope"
&t is inherent in the tehni$ue of the film as well as that of sports that everybody who witnesses its aomplishments is
somewhat of an e(pert" 4his is obvious to anyone listenin! to a !roup of newspaper boys leanin! on their biyles and
disussin! the outome of a biyle rae" &t is not for nothin! that newspaper publishers arran!e raes for their delivery boys"
4hese arouse !reat interest amon! the partiipants, for the vitor has an opportunity to rise from delivery boy to professional
raer" <imilarly, the newsreel offers everyone the opportunity to rise from passer6by to movie e(tra" &n this way any man mi!ht
even find himself part of a wor% of art, as witness +ertov/s Three Songs About Lenin or &vens/ Borinage" 0ny man today an lay
laim to bein! filmed" 4his laim an best be eluidated by a omparative loo% at the historial situation of ontemporary
literature"
'or enturies a small number of writers were onfronted by many thousands of readers" 4his han!ed toward the end of the last
entury" With the inreasin! e(tension of the press, whih %ept plain! new politial, reli!ious, sientifi, professional, and
loal or!ans before the readers, an inreasin! number of readers beame writers 5 at first, oasional ones" &t be!an with the
daily press openin! to its readers spae for >letters to the editor") 0nd today there is hardly a !ainfully employed @uropean who
ould not, in priniple, find an opportunity to publish somewhere or other omments on his wor%, !rievanes, doumentary
reports, or that sort of thin!" 4hus, the distintion between author and publi is about to lose its basi harater" 4he differene
beomes merely funtional; it may vary from ase to ase" 0t any moment the reader is ready to turn into a writer" 0s e(pert,
whih he had to beome willy6nilly in an e(tremely speiali#ed wor% proess, even if only in some minor respet, the reader
!ains aess to authorship" &n the <oviet Enion wor% itself is !iven a voie" 4o present it verbally is part of a man/s ability to
perform the wor%" .iterary liense is now founded on polytehni rather than speiali#ed trainin! and thus beomes ommon
property"
0ll this an easily be applied to the film, where transitions that in literature too% enturies have ome about in a deade" &n
inemati pratie, partiularly in 7ussia, this han!e6over has partially beome established reality" <ome of the players whom
6
we meet in 7ussian films are not ators in our sense but people who portray themselves and primarily in their own wor%
proess" &n Western @urope the apitalisti e(ploitation of the film denies onsideration to modern man/s le!itimate laim to
bein! reprodued" Ender these irumstanes the film industry is tryin! hard to spur the interest of the masses throu!h illusion6
promotin! spetales and dubious speulations"
XI
4he shootin! of a film, espeially of a sound film, affords a spetale unima!inable anywhere at any time before this" &t
presents a proess in whih it is impossible to assi!n to a spetator a viewpoint whih would e(lude from the atual sene suh
e(traneous aessories as amera e$uipment, li!htin! mahinery, staff assistants, et" 5 unless his eye were on a line parallel
with the lens" 4his irumstane, more than any other, renders superfiial and insi!nifiant any possible similarity between a
sene in the studio and one on the sta!e" &n the theater one is well aware of the plae from whih the play annot immediately
be deteted as illusionary" 4here is no suh plae for the movie sene that is bein! shot" &ts illusionary nature is that of the
seond de!ree, the result of uttin!" 4hat is to say, in the studio the mehanial e$uipment has penetrated so deeply into reality
that its pure aspet freed from the forei!n substane of e$uipment is the result of a speial proedure, namely, the shootin! by
the speially adjusted amera and the mountin! of the shot to!ether with other similar ones" 4he e$uipment6free aspet of
reality here has beome the hei!ht of artifie; the si!ht of immediate reality has beome an orhid in the land of tehnolo!y"
@ven more revealin! is the omparison of these irumstanes, whih differ so muh from those of the theater, with the
situation in paintin!" 3ere the $uestion is9 3ow does the ameraman ompare with the painterG 4o answer this we ta%e reourse
to an analo!y with a sur!ial operation" 4he sur!eon represents the polar opposite of the ma!iian" 4he ma!iian heals a si%
person by the layin! on of hands; the sur!eon uts into the patient/s body" 4he ma!iian maintains the natural distane between
the patient and himself; thou!h he redues it very sli!htly by the layin! on of hands, he !reatly inreases it by virtue of his
authority" 4he sur!eon does e(atly the reverse; he !reatly diminishes the distane between himself and the patient by
penetratin! into the patient/s body, and inreases it but little by the aution with whih his hand moves amon! the or!ans" &n
short, in ontrast to the ma!iian 6 who is still hidden in the medial pratitioner 5 the sur!eon at the deisive moment abstains
from fain! the patient man to man; rather, it is throu!h the operation that he penetrates into him"
2a!iian and sur!eon ompare to painter and ameraman" 4he painter maintains in his wor% a natural distane from reality, the
ameraman penetrates deeply into its web" 4here is a tremendous differene between the pitures they obtain" 4hat of the
painter is a total one, that of the ameraman onsists of multiple fra!ments whih are assembled under a new law" 4hus, for
ontemporary man the representation of reality by the film is inomparably more si!nifiant than that of the painter, sine it
offers, preisely beause of the thorou!h!oin! permeation of reality with mehanial e$uipment, an aspet of reality whih is
free of all e$uipment" 0nd that is what one is entitled to as% from a wor% of art"
XII
2ehanial reprodution of art han!es the reation of the masses toward art" 4he reationary attitude toward a *iasso
paintin! han!es into the pro!ressive reation toward a 1haplin movie" 4he pro!ressive reation is harateri#ed by the diret,
intimate fusion of visual and emotional enjoyment with the orientation of the e(pert" <uh fusion is of !reat soial si!nifiane"
4he !reater the derease in the soial si!nifiane of an art form, the sharper the distintion between ritiism and enjoyment by
the publi" 4he onventional is unritially enjoyed, and the truly new is ritii#ed with aversion" With re!ard to the sreen, the
ritial and the reeptive attitudes of the publi oinide" 4he deisive reason for this is that individual reations are
predetermined by the mass audiene response they are about to produe, and this is nowhere more pronouned than in the film"
4he moment these responses beome manifest they ontrol eah other" 0!ain, the omparison with paintin! is fruitful" 0
paintin! has always had an e(ellent hane to be viewed by one person or by a few" 4he simultaneous ontemplation of
paintin!s by a lar!e publi, suh as developed in the nineteenth entury, is an early symptom of the risis of paintin!, a risis
whih was by no means oasioned e(lusively by photo!raphy but rather in a relatively independent manner by the appeal of
art wor%s to the masses"
*aintin! simply is in no position to present an objet for simultaneous olletive e(periene, as it was possible for arhiteture
at all times, for the epi poem in the past, and for the movie today" 0lthou!h this irumstane in itself should not lead one to
onlusions about the soial role of paintin!, it does onstitute a serious threat as soon as paintin!, under speial onditions and,
as it were, a!ainst its nature, is onfronted diretly by the masses" &n the hurhes and monasteries of the 2iddle 0!es and at
7
the prinely ourts up to the end of the ei!hteenth entury, a olletive reeption of paintin!s did not our simultaneously, but
by !raduated and hierarhi#ed mediation" 4he han!e that has ome about is an e(pression of the partiular onflit in whih
paintin! was impliated by the mehanial reproduibility of paintin!s" 0lthou!h paintin!s be!an to be publily e(hibited in
!alleries and salons, there was no way for the masses to or!ani#e and ontrol themselves in their reeption" 4hus the same
publi whih responds in a pro!ressive manner toward a !rotes$ue film is bound to respond in a reationary manner to
surrealism"
XIII
4he harateristis of the film lie not only in the manner in whih man presents himself to mehanial e$uipment but also in the
manner in whih, by means of this apparatus, man an represent his environment" 0 !lane at oupational psyholo!y
illustrates the testin! apaity of the e$uipment" *syhoanalysis illustrates it in a different perspetive" 4he film has enrihed
our field of pereption with methods whih an be illustrated by those of 'reudian theory" 'ifty years a!o, a slip of the ton!ue
passed more or less unnotied" Only e(eptionally may suh a slip have revealed dimensions of depth in a onversation whih
had seemed to be ta%in! its ourse on the surfae" <ine the Ps!hopatholog o" #$erda Li"e thin!s have han!ed" 4his boo%
isolated and made analy#able thin!s whih had heretofore floated alon! unnotied in the broad stream of pereption" 'or the
entire spetrum of optial, and now also aoustial, pereption the film has brou!ht about a similar deepenin! of appereption"
&t is only an obverse of this fat that behavior items shown in a movie an be analy#ed muh more preisely and from more
points of view than those presented on paintin!s or on the sta!e" 0s ompared with paintin!, filmed behavior lends itself more
readily to analysis beause of its inomparably more preise statements of the situation" &n omparison with the sta!e sene, the
filmed behavior item lends itself more readily to analysis beause it an be isolated more easily" 4his irumstane derives its
hief importane from its tendeny to promote the mutual penetration of art and siene" 0tually, of a sreened behavior item
whih is neatly brou!ht out in a ertain situation, li%e a musle of a body, it is diffiult to say whih is more fasinatin!, its
artisti value or its value for siene" 4o demonstrate the identity of the artisti and sientifi uses of photo!raphy whih
heretofore usually were separated will be one of the revolutionary funtions of the film"
By lose6ups of the thin!s around us, by fousin! on hidden details of familiar objets, by e(plorin! ommon plae milieus
under the in!enious !uidane of the amera, the film, on the one hand, e(tends our omprehension of the neessities whih rule
our lives; on the other hand, it mana!es to assure us of an immense and une(peted field of ation" Our taverns and our
metropolitan streets, our offies and furnished rooms, our railroad stations and our fatories appeared to have us lo%ed up
hopelessly" 4hen ame the film and burst this prison6world asunder by the dynamite of the tenth of a seond, so that now, in the
midst of its far6flun! ruins and debris, we almly and adventurously !o travelin!" With the lose6up, spae e(pands; with slow
motion, movement is e(tended" 4he enlar!ement of a snapshot does not simply render more preise what in any ase was
visible, thou!h unlear9 it reveals entirely new strutural formations of the subjet" <o, too, slow motion not only presents
familiar $ualities of movement but reveals in them entirely un%nown ones >whih, far from loo%in! li%e retarded rapid
movements, !ive the effet of sin!ularly !lidin!, floatin!, supernatural motions") @vidently a different nature opens itself to the
amera than opens to the na%ed eye 5 if only beause an unonsiously penetrated spae is substituted for a spae onsiously
e(plored by man" @ven if one has a !eneral %nowled!e of the way people wal%, one %nows nothin! of a person/s posture durin!
the frational seond of a stride" 4he at of reahin! for a li!hter or a spoon is familiar routine, yet we hardly %now what really
!oes on between hand and metal, not to mention how this flutuates with our moods" 3ere the amera intervenes with the
resoures of its lowerin!s and liftin!s, its interruptions and isolations, it e(tensions and aelerations, its enlar!ements and
redutions" 4he amera introdues us to unonsious optis as does psyhoanalysis to unonsious impulses"
XIV
One of the foremost tas%s of art has always been the reation of a demand whih ould be fully satisfied only later" 4he history
of every art form shows ritial epohs in whih a ertain art form aspires to effets whih ould be fully obtained only with a
han!ed tehnial standard, that is to say, in a new art form" 4he e(trava!anes and rudities of art whih thus appear,
partiularly in the so6alled deadent epohs, atually arise from the nuleus of its rihest historial ener!ies" &n reent years,
suh barbarisms were abundant in :adaism" &t is only now that its impulse beomes disernible9 :adaism attempted to reate
by pitorial 5 and literary 5 means the effets whih the publi today see%s in the film"
@very fundamentally new, pioneerin! reation of demands will arry beyond its !oal" :adaism did so to the e(tent that it
sarified the mar%et values whih are so harateristi of the film in favor of hi!her ambitions 5 thou!h of ourse it was not
onsious of suh intentions as here desribed" 4he :adaists attahed muh less importane to the sales value of their wor% than
8
to its usefulness for ontemplative immersion" 4he studied de!radation of their material was not the least of their means to
ahieve this uselessness" 4heir poems are >word salad) ontainin! obsenities and every ima!inable waste produt of lan!ua!e"
4he same is true of their paintin!s, on whih they mounted buttons and ti%ets" What they intended and ahieved was a
relentless destrution of the aura of their reations, whih they branded as reprodutions with the very means of prodution"
Before a paintin! of 0rp/s or a poem by 0u!ust <tramm it is impossible to ta%e time for ontemplation and evaluation as one
would before a anvas of :erain/s or a poem by 7il%e" &n the deline of middle6lass soiety, ontemplation beame a shool
for asoial behavior; it was ountered by distration as a variant of soial ondut" :adaisti ativities atually assured a rather
vehement distration by ma%in! wor%s of art the enter of sandal" One re$uirement was foremost9 to outra!e the publi"
'rom an allurin! appearane or persuasive struture of sound the wor% of art of the :adaists beame an instrument of ballistis"
&t hit the spetator li%e a bullet, it happened to him, thus a$uirin! a tatile $uality" &t promoted a demand for the film, the
distratin! element of whih is also primarily tatile, bein! based on han!es of plae and fous whih periodially assail the
spetator" .et us ompare the sreen on whih a film unfolds with the anvas of a paintin!" 4he paintin! invites the spetator to
ontemplation; before it the spetator an abandon himself to his assoiations" Before the movie frame he annot do so" Do
sooner has his eye !rasped a sene than it is already han!ed" &t annot be arrested" :uhamel, who detests the film and %nows
nothin! of its si!nifiane, thou!h somethin! of its struture, notes this irumstane as follows9 >& an no lon!er thin% what &
want to thin%" 2y thou!hts have been replaed by movin! ima!es") 4he spetator/s proess of assoiation in view of these
ima!es is indeed interrupted by their onstant, sudden han!e" 4his onstitutes the sho% effet of the film, whih, li%e all
sho%s, should be ushioned by hei!htened presene of mind" By means of its tehnial struture, the film has ta%en the
physial sho% effet out of the wrappers in whih :adaism had, as it were, %ept it inside the moral sho% effet"
XV
4he mass is a matri( from whih all traditional behavior toward wor%s of art issues today in a new form" Juantity has been
transmuted into $uality" 4he !reatly inreased mass of partiipants has produed a han!e in the mode of partiipation" 4he fat
that the new mode of partiipation first appeared in a disreputable form must not onfuse the spetator" Het some people have
launhed spirited atta%s a!ainst preisely this superfiial aspet" 0mon! these, :uhamel has e(pressed himself in the most
radial manner" What he objets to most is the %ind of partiipation whih the movie eliits from the masses" :uhamel alls the
movie >a pastime for helots, a diversion for uneduated, wrethed, worn6out reatures who are onsumed by their worries a
spetale whih re$uires no onentration and presupposes no intelli!ene whih %indles no li!ht in the heart and awa%ens no
hope other than the ridiulous one of someday beomin! a Istar/ in .os 0n!eles") 1learly, this is at bottom the same anient
lament that the masses see% distration whereas art demands onentration from the spetator" 4hat is a ommonplae"
4he $uestion remains whether it provides a platform for the analysis of the film" 0 loser loo% is needed here" :istration and
onentration form polar opposites whih may be stated as follows9 0 man who onentrates before a wor% of art is absorbed
by it" 3e enters into this wor% of art the way le!end tells of the 1hinese painter when he viewed his finished paintin!" &n
ontrast, the distrated mass absorbs the wor% of art" 4his is most obvious with re!ard to buildin!s" 0rhiteture has always
represented the prototype of a wor% of art the reeption of whih is onsummated by a olletivity in a state of distration" 4he
laws of its reeption are most instrutive"
Buildin!s have been man/s ompanions sine primeval times" 2any art forms have developed and perished" 4ra!edy be!ins
with the 8ree%s, is e(tin!uished with them, and after enturies its >rules) only are revived" 4he epi poem, whih had its ori!in
in the youth of nations, e(pires in @urope at the end of the 7enaissane" *anel paintin! is a reation of the 2iddle 0!es, and
nothin! !uarantees its uninterrupted e(istene" But the human need for shelter is lastin!" 0rhiteture has never been idle" &ts
history is more anient than that of any other art, and its laim to bein! a livin! fore has si!nifiane in every attempt to
omprehend the relationship of the masses to art" Buildin!s are appropriated in a twofold manner9 by use and by pereption 5 or
rather, by touh and si!ht" <uh appropriation annot be understood in terms of the attentive onentration of a tourist before a
famous buildin!" On the tatile side there is no ounterpart to ontemplation on the optial side" 4atile appropriation is
aomplished not so muh by attention as by habit" 0s re!ards arhiteture, habit determines to a lar!e e(tent even optial
reeption" 4he latter, too, ours muh less throu!h rapt attention than by notiin! the objet in inidental fashion" 4his mode of
appropriation, developed with referene to arhiteture, in ertain irumstanes a$uires anonial value" 'or the tas%s whih
fae the human apparatus of pereption at the turnin! points of history annot be solved by optial means, that is, by
ontemplation, alone" 4hey are mastered !radually by habit, under the !uidane of tatile appropriation"
9
4he distrated person, too, an form habits" 2ore, the ability to master ertain tas%s in a state of distration proves that their
solution has beome a matter of habit" :istration as provided by art presents a overt ontrol of the e(tent to whih new tas%s
have beome soluble by appereption" <ine, moreover, individuals are tempted to avoid suh tas%s, art will ta%le the most
diffiult and most important ones where it is able to mobili#e the masses" 4oday it does so in the film" 7eeption in a state of
distration, whih is inreasin! notieably in all fields of art and is symptomati of profound han!es in appereption, finds in
the film its true means of e(erise" 4he film with its sho% effet meets this mode of reeption halfway" 4he film ma%es the ult
value reede into the ba%!round not only by puttin! the publi in the position of the riti, but also by the fat that at the
movies this position re$uires no attention" 4he publi is an e(aminer, but an absent6minded one"
Epilogue
4he !rowin! proletariani#ation of modern man and the inreasin! formation of masses are two aspets of the same proess"
'asism attempts to or!ani#e the newly reated proletarian masses without affetin! the property struture whih the masses
strive to eliminate" 'asism sees its salvation in !ivin! these masses not their ri!ht, but instead a hane to e(press themselves"
4he masses have a ri!ht to han!e property relations; 'asism see%s to !ive them an e(pression while preservin! property" 4he
lo!ial result of 'asism is the introdution of aesthetis into politial life" 4he violation of the masses, whom 'asism, with its
'Khrer ult, fores to their %nees, has its ounterpart in the violation of an apparatus whih is pressed into the prodution of
ritual values"
0ll efforts to render politis aestheti ulminate in one thin!9 war" War and war only an set a !oal for mass movements on the
lar!est sale while respetin! the traditional property system" 4his is the politial formula for the situation" 4he tehnolo!ial
formula may be stated as follows9 Only war ma%es it possible to mobili#e all of today/s tehnial resoures while maintainin!
the property system" &t !oes without sayin! that the 'asist apotheosis of war does not employ suh ar!uments" <till, 2arinetti
says in his manifesto on the @thiopian olonial war9
>'or twenty6seven years we 'uturists have rebelled a!ainst the brandin! of war as anti6aestheti """ 0ordin!ly we state9""" War
is beautiful beause it establishes man/s dominion over the subju!ated mahinery by means of !as mas%s, terrifyin!
me!aphones, flame throwers, and small tan%s" War is beautiful beause it initiates the dreamt6of metali#ation of the human
body" War is beautiful beause it enrihes a flowerin! meadow with the fiery orhids of mahine !uns" War is beautiful beause
it ombines the !unfire, the annonades, the ease6fire, the sents, and the stenh of putrefation into a symphony" War is
beautiful beause it reates new arhiteture, li%e that of the bi! tan%s, the !eometrial formation fli!hts, the smo%e spirals from
burnin! villa!es, and many others """ *oets and artists of 'uturismF """ remember these priniples of an aesthetis of war so that
your stru!!le for a new literature and a new !raphi art """ may be illumined by themF)
4his manifesto has the virtue of larity" &ts formulations deserve to be aepted by dialetiians" 4o the latter, the aesthetis of
today/s war appears as follows9 &f the natural utili#ation of produtive fores is impeded by the property system, the inrease in
tehnial devies, in speed, and in the soures of ener!y will press for an unnatural utili#ation, and this is found in war" 4he
destrutiveness of war furnishes proof that soiety has not been mature enou!h to inorporate tehnolo!y as its or!an, that
tehnolo!y has not been suffiiently developed to ope with the elemental fores of soiety" 4he horrible features of
imperialisti warfare are attributable to the disrepany between the tremendous means of prodution and their inade$uate
utili#ation in the proess of prodution 5 in other words, to unemployment and the la% of mar%ets" &mperialisti war is a
rebellion of tehnolo!y whih ollets, in the form of >human material,) the laims to whih soiety has denied its natural
materrial" &nstead of drainin! rivers, soiety direts a human stream into a bed of trenhes; instead of droppin! seeds from
airplanes, it drops inendiary bombs over ities; and throu!h !as warfare the aura is abolished in a new way"
>'iat ars 5 pereat mundus), says 'asism, and, as 2arinetti admits, e(pets war to supply the artisti !ratifiation of a sense
pereption that has been han!ed by tehnolo!y" 4his is evidently the onsummation of >l/art pour l/art") 2an%ind, whih in
3omer/s time was an objet of ontemplation for the Olympian !ods, now is one for itself" &ts self6alienation has reahed suh a
de!ree that it an e(periene its own destrution as an aestheti pleasure of the first order" 4his is the situation of politis whih
'asism is renderin! aestheti" 1ommunism responds by politii#in! art"
10