Week 1 Lecture Notes:

 




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Week 1 - Walter Benjamin - 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction'

Mechanical reproduction is the copying and reproducing of pre-existing images/prints/paintings. In this reading Benjamin seems to be arguing that the rise of mechanical reproduction has killed off the authenticity and the 'distinctive atmosphere or quality that surrounds' the artwork, in other words, the aura.  The rise of mechanical reproduction happened around 1900 where it had 'reached a standard that not only permitted it to reproduce all transmitted works of art and thus to cause the most profound change in their impact upon the public; it also had captured a place of its own among the artistic processes'. This process now becoming frequently used created some issues for Benjamin in the fact that the reproduced pieces of work 'lacked one element: its presence in time an space, its unique existence' and on top of this they would all miss the 'physical changes over the years' that would stay with the original for its existence. He puts this perfectly ...
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Week 4 Montage - Battleship Potempkin - Odessa Steps scene (Einsenstein 1925)

Image
This here is a successful use of a montage sequence with the scene cutting from the boys reaction to two different people. In the first scene we see the women twirling her umbrella and smiling, and from this we see the reaction of the boy look concerned. At this moment we are unaware why his face is like this as there is nothing signifying to the audience that we should be concerned. But with the use of editing, we cut to the image of the limbless man waving, which gives some explanation to the viewer to possibly why he feels uncomfortable to wave. Later on we see the boy is somewhat forced to wave and this begins to create some questions for the viewer.  The most important thing to understand form this is with the use of a montage you have the possibility to lose geographical location and because of this the viewer has to question what the individual is looking at. This is a good tool to use in your work, as it allows for each viewer to have a different view of the scene. It is no...
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