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Returning to Benjamin

Returning to Benjamin

$10.00
Returning to Benjamin
$10.00

The Story

Ebook available on Apple Books and Kindle Store.

‘In the mid-1930s, Walter Benjamin posed the question of the relation of art to the dominant representational technology of his time: photography and film. To return to the artwork essay today in the spirit in which it was written is to ask the same question in respect of the hegemonic representational technology of our own time: the digital. Benjamin found that the medium of photography and film had dissolved the auratic quality of art. Digital technology has dissolved the very category of ‘medium’ itself.’ 

Walter Benjamin’s essay of cultural criticism ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ has become a ‘classic’ text, one which resonated through the twentieth century and beyond. In this succinct and pointed new essay, the artist and writer Victor Burgin rereads Benjamin’s 1935 text, to elaborate a new argument contending that the camera today is profoundly imbricated in that which is not visible.

DISCOURSE is a series of small books in which a theorist, artist, or writer engages in a dialogue with a theme, an artwork, an idea, or another individual across an extended text. Explore the full series here.

Returning to Benjamin - Image 2

Details & Craftsmanship

Every detail has been carefully considered to bring you the perfect product.

Returning to Benjamin - Image 3

Details & Craftsmanship

Every detail has been carefully considered to bring you the perfect product.

Returning to Benjamin - Image 4

Details & Craftsmanship

Every detail has been carefully considered to bring you the perfect product.

Returning to Benjamin - Image 5

Details & Craftsmanship

Every detail has been carefully considered to bring you the perfect product.

Returning to Benjamin - Image 6

Details & Craftsmanship

Every detail has been carefully considered to bring you the perfect product.

Returning to Benjamin - Image 7

Details & Craftsmanship

Every detail has been carefully considered to bring you the perfect product.

Returning to Benjamin - Image 8

Details & Craftsmanship

Every detail has been carefully considered to bring you the perfect product.

Returning to Benjamin - Image 9

Details & Craftsmanship

Every detail has been carefully considered to bring you the perfect product.

Returning to Benjamin - Image 10

Details & Craftsmanship

Every detail has been carefully considered to bring you the perfect product.

Returning to Benjamin - Image 11

Details & Craftsmanship

Every detail has been carefully considered to bring you the perfect product.

Returning to Benjamin - Image 12

Details & Craftsmanship

Every detail has been carefully considered to bring you the perfect product.

Returning to Benjamin - Image 13

Details & Craftsmanship

Every detail has been carefully considered to bring you the perfect product.

Returning to Benjamin - Image 14

Details & Craftsmanship

Every detail has been carefully considered to bring you the perfect product.

Returning to Benjamin - Image 15

Details & Craftsmanship

Every detail has been carefully considered to bring you the perfect product.

Returning to Benjamin - Image 16

Details & Craftsmanship

Every detail has been carefully considered to bring you the perfect product.

Description

Ebook available on Apple Books and Kindle Store.

‘In the mid-1930s, Walter Benjamin posed the question of the relation of art to the dominant representational technology of his time: photography and film. To return to the artwork essay today in the spirit in which it was written is to ask the same question in respect of the hegemonic representational technology of our own time: the digital. Benjamin found that the medium of photography and film had dissolved the auratic quality of art. Digital technology has dissolved the very category of ‘medium’ itself.’ 

Walter Benjamin’s essay of cultural criticism ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ has become a ‘classic’ text, one which resonated through the twentieth century and beyond. In this succinct and pointed new essay, the artist and writer Victor Burgin rereads Benjamin’s 1935 text, to elaborate a new argument contending that the camera today is profoundly imbricated in that which is not visible.

DISCOURSE is a series of small books in which a theorist, artist, or writer engages in a dialogue with a theme, an artwork, an idea, or another individual across an extended text. Explore the full series here.

Returning to Benjamin | MACK