Aura

The idea of aura in Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction could use a bit of refining to show the advantages of reproduction.

People are nostalgic, and they appreciate authenticity. Cheap reproductions of Munch’s The Scream cover dormitory walls across America, but these replicas allow entry level art lovers the opportunity to let the mind wander to Europe where this and other classics call home. Consider the pilgrimage to museums ‘trading up’ in the category of art appreciation.

Reproductions are essential to education as well. Without them we would be unable to gain advance knowledge of all the works we venture to appreciate in the presence of their aura. We imagine nuances in the works that the reproduction fails to recognize.

We are not mistaken about the authenticity of reproductions. It is interesting though, that in the age of the mp3, many of us are. Though recorded music in and of itself is a reproduction, it is also the work of art. A bitwise comparison of the CD to analog tape reveals that the CD is about 25% the size of tape. For 20 years we’ve been listening to compressed music without the dynamic frequency range of tape. When you also consider that a collection of mp3s is about 10% the size of the same songs on a CD, we realize that what we are listening to is just a fraction of what we should be listening to. Given the convenience of small files and the ability to carry thousands of them in the palm of your hand, they should not be overlooked, but similar appreciation should be had for the full experience that analog and high resolution digital music has to offer.