"Aura" in the World of New Media

In today's popular culture, it is almost impossible for any art form to maintain its "aura." The reason behind such diminished uniqueness is due to reproduction and its access to the general public or consumers. As the demand for the availability of art increases, the value of it decreases. According to the essay, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin, he states, "It is significant that the existence of the work of art with reference to its aura is never entirely separated from its ritual function. In other words, the unique value of the "authentic" work of art has its basis in ritual, the location of its original use value." (5) In the past, artwork serves as something sacred and hidden from the public to sustain its historical meaning. Every work of art is bound to the location, the spiritual value and authenticity of the time it was produced. Therefore, any duplication, no matter how true to the value and meaning it tries to sustain falls short of the “aura” that Benjamin discussed in his essay. Benjamin defines “… aura of the latter as the unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be.”(4)

In the world of media today, the option to reproduce is more available than that of the past. For example, Benjamin mentioned in his essay about photography, the availability of the negative allows for numerous prints, so there is no sense in asking for the original print. As for film, we see what the director wants us to see. The film is shot in the perception of the director; every technical aspect is manipulated to convey a message. Therefore, the aura is almost entirely diminished. The same can be said about machinima. It is the use of video game graphics to narrate a story. Machinima is an art that exist entirely on the combination of old and new so therefore decayed aura and the creation of its own aura is present. Today, the “aura” of artwork is almost completely diminished, as technology advance, art once produced by hand can now be produced digitally and when anything can be digitized it becomes more accessible to almost anyone.