Ideals behind art, Benjamins theories and Manipulation of truth

Art is a creative form of expressing one's self and can be done by anyone. It is possible for anyone to create something artistic and whether it is simplistic or complex is not relevant to if it can be labelled as art or not.

Creating art gives us the freedom to express ourselves in another form rather then speech or writing. There should be no limitations as what is defined as art. If something we create is seen in our eyes as art then that is what it is.

The profession of being an art critique seems very objective and one sided. It is not they who created the artwork so therefore how can they judge what is done. If the artist decides what they want their art to be then how can anyone else try to label it any differently.

Walter Benjamin describes the Age of the Mechanical reproduction as being the time that the aura of art ‘withers’ (4) He goes on to state that;

The technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence (4)

In this sense then when comparing the production of digital art with Benjamin’s statement, digital art is art without aura as it is something that can be reproduced over and over again quite easily.

In furthering the ideals of Benjamin we are questioned whether or not Photoshopped images can be considered authentic;

The authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning, ranging from it’s substantive duration to its testimony to the history which it has experienced (4)

Photoshop is a photo editor that can change your photos and pictures and can be reproduced continousely. You end up with a completely different art work if you know how to use the program. There is definitely nothing authentic about Photoshop although the image you started with can be seen as authentic as it has undergone changes over time to become something new.

This weeks lecture ‘Why I hate Wikipedia’ wasn’t really all about that. It only touched on the flaws of Wikipedia by not publising the truth.The lecture focued on how internet sources need to interpret the truth and websites should not be used academically unless they have been properly sourced. There is plenty of resources out there it’s just knowing which one is reliable and accurate. They’ll let you publish pretty much anything and might not necessarily do any background research on it.

Reading: Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis, Terius
The short story written by Jorge Luis shows how perceived truth is easily manipulated and he explores how information can influence our perceptions therefore creating an atmosphere which breeds a false truth. It discusses that information provided to someone can be perceived as facts and made into believable material. An example of this can be found in sources such as Wikipedia.