Artistic Aura Vs. Cyber Aura

The aura in artwork has been long lost. The aura, or attention gripping magical rush that makes one think of a piece of art as more than a mere accomplishment, but a feat of human achievement, has been lost not only by the mechanical reproduction of the actual piece, but also by technology’s effect on culture. In DaVinci’s era, I guarantee that people could gaze in amazement at his art or sculpture and really appreciate the piece because it propelled mankind forward through artistic genius. Now teens sit in class and should dissect the piece at least so it conjures some meaning, but instead they sit there glued to their fancy cell phones waiting for a text. Amazing has become ordinary. Nothing amazes the average technologically savvy snob of today’s generation because they have been spoiled. Spoiled to believe amazing just happens and the term can be thrown around for any given reason. To people in DaVinci’s time, his artwork was equivalent to how technology is viewed today. The difference is that there is only one DaVinci compared to millions of cell phones.
Everyday there is somebody mad at their cell phone for being too slow. What this person doesn’t understand is that there is a wave shooting into space, bouncing off a satellite and racing back to earth in less than a second… could you give it some time without getting upset! People are too immature to respect and appreciate the aura a DaVinci contains because they aren’t even content with what today’s generation has. Art should be timeless, but I have little faith in humanity. The number of people that walk into a museum and a library combined in a year don’t add up to the amount of YouTube hits “Cat Flushing a Toilet” gets in a few months. The reason why world renowned museums have to charge admission is because people have lost value in pieces of art. When art loses its aura, culture loses art. Media and technology is the culprit for overproducing to the point where people can’t differentiate amazing from ordinary. I agree with Walter Benjamin when he states in his book Illuminations, “During long periods of history, the mode of human sense perception changes with humanity’s entire mode of existence”[1]. Right now humanities entire mode of existence revolves around technology; hence; sense perception toward the really special things in life is skewed leaving art to the humble enthusiast.
[1] Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. New York, NY: Shocken Books, 1968. Print. Pg, 222