Response to Walter's Essay

In Walter's essay titled "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", he examines and discusses a lot of interesting points about the effects of advancements in technology. He talks a lot about the shift in perception of film, photography and more in the 20th century. Walter explains how he believes the "aura" or merely the originality and authenticity of the work that is created through mechanical reproduction has been lost. He also talks about how this loss may one day make art political in that images will be reproducible.

I thought it was interesting how he said that the cameraman intervenes with what you see in a film but in a painting you see it for all that it is. He explains how a viewer can ponder and contemplate the meaning and feeling of the peice when looking at a painting. However, in a movie you can't grasp a scene for too long before its gone. The constant and sudden change within a film leave you to be distracted from the previous scene and leaves little to the imagination. He thinks this "loss of aura" dulls our perception and instead of recognizing the artwork for what it is, we are distracted and directs your eye towards a specific spot.

Analog vs. Digital

Here is a picture of a cat painting that represents an example of an analog piece. It is essentially the same as this digital piece in its content, but different in approach. It has the same purpose as the painting and a very similar message, it's just created digitally and interactive in it's unraveling. I think the similarities outweigh the differences between these two pieces. However, I think the digital representation of this cat is much more interesting in that you have to create the picture yourself and it's composed of hundreds of tiny dots of color into one big picture.

My Post from Rhizome- "Because You Asked"

"Because You Asked" (although pretty creepy) is the piece I found most interesting on Rhizome. It's an artist's digital self-portrait. It's created using Flash and is very interactive. The artist uses sound, text and audio to develop his self portrait with the help of the viewer. The portrait can only be completed with the help of the viewer clicking on the buttons and interacting with the art. I like that this piece is making a comment on the developing technologies in new media and the opportunities these programs like Flash offer. It's an interesting concept that the user becomes the painter in this piece and the fact that he gives you the option to erase him when you're done also raises some questions and makes me think further into the message he's trying to convey here.