week 3 blog Natalie Myszkowski

This week we discussed ideas revolving around mechanization, and robotics and how this is tied to industrialization. In Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, he discusses how there is a major loss in authenticity in art due to the technological advances as of late. With new tools for production and reproduction, there is a loss of humanity in our art and we become separated from it. 

This reminds me of the ideas discussed by Marx and the mechanization of labor. Marx believed that with the replacement of machines for human labor, we become estranged from the work we are doing which is harmful to the laborer. 

This idea is also explored in the film Modern Times starring Charlie Chaplin. This film follows a laborer working in a factory assembly line and we watch as he gets sucked in, becoming a cog in the system before eventually descending into madness.

Just as Marx’s laborer is separated from their work, with technology, the artist is separated from their work all the same. Benjamin describes the technologically aided reproduction of work to always be missing “its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be".  Even if the reproduction is perfect, it will always be missing the essential and authentic humanity of the piece. 

There are multiple films that touch on the ideas of how society responds to industrialization and one that comes to mind immediately is Wall-E. This children's film imagines a future where humans live in a world dominated by technology in which we ultimately lose all of our autonomy and ambition for any activity at all. The film critiques the ways in which humans let technology creates overstimulation through a facade of simplification of people’s lives. The film suggests that we accept the addition of technology into our lives too willingly and it is removing us from the world and people around us. 

References

Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” 1936.

Chaplin, Charles, director. Modern Times. 

Marx, Karl. Estranged Labour, Marx, 1844, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/labour.htm. 

Stanton, Andrew, et al. WALL-E.

Vesna, Victoria. “Lectures Paart 1.” Lectures Part 1. Lectures Part 1, 21 Apr. 2023.

Image Citation

Chaplin, Charles, director. Modern Times. 

P-Themes. “Mass Produced Art.” Curina, https://www.curina.co/blogs/news/mass-produced-mass-painted.

Stanton, Andrew, et al. WALL-E.