Week 3: Robotics + Art

The historical transformation of art mediums and formats brought on by industrialization and technological innovation has influenced our perceptions as to what can be truly labeled as "art." Benjamin Walter makes the observation of the belief that the age of mechanical reproduction has withered the authenticity or the "aura" of a work of art, as we move away from the "original" (1936). That is to say that in this vast digital age of video, mass communications, and the Internet, the line between original and reproduction is indistinguishable because pictures, words, sounds, and ideas are all "received, deconstructed, rearranged, and restored wherever they are seen, heard, or stored" (Davis, 1991-95). 


Text References

Douglas, Davis, "The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction," Leonardo, Vol 28, No. 5, pp. 381-386., (1991-95), Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.

Walter, Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Visual culture: Experiences in Visual Culture 4: 114-137, (1936), Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.

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