Benjamin

Shameka Clark

LEH 300

 

 

            “Even if one has a general knowledge of the way people walk, one knows nothing of a person's posture during the fractional second of a stride. The act of reaching for a lighter or a spoon is a familiar routine, yet we hardly know what really goes on between hand and metal, not to mention how this fluctuates with our moods. Here the camera intervenes with the resources of its lowerings and liftings, its interruptions and isolations, its extensions and accelerations, its enlargements and reductions. The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses (p. 237).”

 

-What I believe this quote is saying is that when a picture or a movie is taking place, the camera only shows what is happing. The camera does not show or explained how these actions are happening or how the person feels during these actions.

 

Please also complete the following questions:

1.      Why does Benjamin argue for the similar effects of Dadaism and Chaplin films?

Benjamin argues for similar effects because pain is an emotion everyone has or will experience in their life and it give them the ability to relate to his work.

2.      Explain some of the positive and negative effects of the destruction of the "aura" in art.

The negative effects are, it gives the artists less freedom to express their self and the positive effects is it more acceptable in society.  

3.      How would you judge or evaluate the impact of mass culture in contemporary life today?

Mass culture in contemporary life today I believe is more worry  about what others think compare to the times of Benjamin were people were will to risk their life just so their voice would be heard.