Walter Benjamin's Article

In Walter Benjamin's artical "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", he analyses the political elements in art. As a German intellectual growing up in the heat of fascism, Benjamin tends to be passionate about politics and capatilism and how it is expressed in art. Paintings, drawings and sculpting is referred to as pieces of art, and can definately be considered "authentic". However, with the introduction of contemporary digital media, the "aura" that was evident in the older forms of art, has been lost. The uniqueness and orginality is no longer apparent as with a computer, anything can now be changed or altered to suit those that wish to use it.

Authentic is a word to describe "aura", which explains the extreme speciality of art. An artist begins with nothing. A clean canvas. A hunk of marble. A pencil. Multiple paints. Art is what an artist finishes with, once they have completed their work. However a photoshopped image requires art to begin with. Therefore it cannot be considered authentic, merely altered art.

Someone who can create things digitally from scratch, can be considered a skilled professional. Even though it is not the same as a painting, or what society is used to, it is still a form of art. Thus art is simply changing, evolving, not being forgotten. It is when people begin to change existing work of artists, that sees art declining and losing its impact on culture, politics (as Benjamin emphasizes in his article) and society as a whole.