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. at the beginning of the 20th century, in his text “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, walter benjamin proclaimed that with the utilisation of mechanical means of reproduction, it would be possible to widely distribute political artworks , as a result of which people would be encouraged to develop their awareness of political issues. benjamin’s idealistic vision met with the obstacle of what theodor adorno referred to as the “culture industry“_
.due to their dependency on object, cultural products that could only be reproduced through mechanical means in the form of a physical object such as a book, vinyl or film were subjected to the same capitalistic production processes as any other commodity. outside of the confines of such relationships, today it is possible for all cultural productions that can be formulated as digital information to be freely and widely distributed, very easily edited and then re-distributed. the greatest obstacle to this becoming a reality is the rigid intellectual property laws that were based on the premise of mechanical reproduction and to date have been singularly developed and changed to ensure the continuing profitability of the “culture industry“_ . even the title “Mapping Benjamin: Work of Art in the Digital Age” (Stanford University Press), which contains a reassessment of benjamin’s political views on the mechanical reproduction of works of art in the context of the contemporary facilities that digital reproduction offers, is featured through means of mechanical reproduction, without politicizing digital reproduction_ |
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