January 27, 2007

The first time I read The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin, I had a hard time staying focused but got a good idea of the reading. Then, I printed off the discussion questions and went back through the assignment and got a much stronger understanding of what Benjamin was trying to say. His main points included; reproduction of art, specific mediums that are considered art, as well as how the working class or "proletariat" are related to capitalism and their expression/interpretation of art.

Benjamin describes Marxism as a prognostic understanding of capitalism in its infancy to present the way that capitalism could be in the future. Benjamin explains that there is a chance that the working class could eventually make it a possibility for the conditions to be so bad that capitalism is erased.
Over the years the idea of reproduction has had a very large impact of the public. In the reading, Benjamin says that it lacks presence of time and space. To this, I agree just as much as I disagree. I do believe that art has been changed due to the reproduction or art, but it is now much more easily viewed and shared. It does in fact lose the idea of space, and possibly even time, but it has created multiple new mediums (i.e., Printmaking, Photography).
Whether or not photography is an art form is certainly futile because whether or not its actually an art form, it "captures images that rscape natural vision" and "can make copies out of reach for the original". Further in the article, Dada is discussed. There are many art forms that can be absorbed into states of distraction, those being film, paintings and even poetry. Dada was a movement that followed WWI and was almost said to simply "outrage the public".
The reading was extensive but very interesting and it encouraged me to look up many things that I was unsure about. I wanted to find a specific relationship between Fascism and art. I have decided that public contemporary art is very related to Benjamin's idea of Fascism and art. "Fascism sees its salvation in giving the masses not their right, but instead a chance to express themselves." Digital Art is also directly correlated to this because it gives the audience a chance to give the "people expression while preserving property".

Interviews with Josephine Bosma

The two interviews that I read with Josephine Bosma were with Net Artists Cary Peppermint and Peter Luining. Because the interviews seem to have been e-mailed to the artists the questions were the same for each artist.

Cary Peppermint answered Bosma's very literal, straight-forward questions by beating around the bush. "How do you feel about physical exhibitions of net art in general?" was Bosma's first question. Peppermint started by answering as explaining internet as an "effective medium" but after saying that, his response to the question of physical exhibitions went off on a serious tangent. I felt Peppermint's answers were almost too flowery, especially in comparison to the next interview I read with Peter Luining.

Luining's responses were much more to the point, but not very expressive. I enjoyed reading that he understood the relationship between extending work into physical space and the one to one ration that you get when it is solely the viewer and the web browser.

I think that both artists were vague about their experimental set up. I would have liked to see more detailed or more experimental ideas. This question to me, was looking for fun, more responsive answers.