Aura and Culture Industry

In his essay, "The Work of Art In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", Walter Benjamin best describes the aura in relation to objects, or art. He writes, "the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition" (pg 221). By this he means that because objects can now be mass produced, the original object that is copied no longer has any importance or value. This importance or value is an object's "aura".

I believe that in the digital age, works of art have indeed lost their "aura", but I don't believe this is a bad thing at all. The internet and technology have allowed everyone everywhere access to wonderful works of art, books, movies, and television shows than ever before possible. Despite these things losing their original value, especially through piracy and duplication, they are more accessible and reach a wider audience.

Adorno coins the term "culture industry" in his essay "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception". He claims that culture has become capitalized and industrialized, and as a result is commodified. Adorno uses film as a major example of this. He writes, "Under monopoly all mass culture is identical, and the lines of its artificial framework begin to show through. The people at the top are no longer so interested in concealing monopoly: as its violence becomes more open, so its power grows. Movies and radio need no longer pretend to be art. The truth that they are just business is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce. They call themselves industries; and when their directors’ incomes are published, any doubt about the social utility of the finished products is removed" (p 95).

In contrast to my feelings about Benjamin and the "aura", I do feel that Adorno is justified in his concepts about the culture industry. The idea of movies and television as a commodity but also a part of the culture presents a problem. People are being sold the same things that they use to define themselves.