Walter Benjamin

The virtual Aura: the technologies of exhibition and the exhibition of technologies

by Susan Hazan

The Supposed Threat of the Craft Beer Movement: How it supports Modern Western Capitalist Culture

by David Price

Seminar Paper from class that dealt primarily with the work of Walter Benjamin. The paper deals with the philosophical and social underpinnings of the craft beer movement.

The Porous Coupling of Walter Benjamin and Asja Lacis

by Justine McGill

Los bucles de lo grotesco. El arte ante la lógica de la historia

by Ana Carrasco-Conde

L'image et l'archive. Archéologie du présent dans l'œuvre de Walter Benjamin et Michel Foucault

by Arianna Lodeserto

In this dissertation I will plot out two heterogeneous paths used in conducting the search for an “archeological... more In this dissertation I will plot out two heterogeneous paths used in conducting the search for an “archeological method” which would be able to place the present “in a critical position” and therefore question the modality in which history is written and its object constructed. My aim is to compare the conception of history exposed by Walter Benjamin in the Arcades Projects, in the theses On the Concept of History, and in other preparatory materials, with Michel Foucault’s archeo-genealogy, which I will explore making reference to Foucault’s shorter texts, interviews, and the Lectures at the Collège de France from the first phase of his carrier. While aware of the inevitable differences separating Benjamin’s and Foucault’s works, I suggest a possible convergence by limiting my comparison to some essential vectors of their conceptual frameworks, such as: the critique of the concept of origin, the role of discontinuity, the perspective of the “anonymous,” the fragmentation of history into singular images, and, eventually, the defense of the use of history as both fertile soil for philosophy as well as political strategy. History becomes the urgency of thought.

BENJAMIN, FASCISM, AND COMMUNISM

by Jon Simons

Unpublished paper awaiting revision for re-submission to Cultural Politics.

Walter Benjamin’s famous condemnation of fascism as aestheticized politics in his artwork essay does not amount to a... more Walter Benjamin’s famous condemnation of fascism as aestheticized politics in his artwork essay does not amount to a rejection of all aestheticized politics. Benjamin implicitly commends a communist version of aestheticized politics which would realize the unfulfilled promise of art in the age of technological reproducibility. Central to Benjamin’s argument is his understanding that fascism abuses technological forces of production under capitalist conditions in which technology and society are misaligned, leading to war, whereas communism would achieve equilibrium or interplay between humanity and technology. Technological reproducibility of the arts is significant in four ways: it transforms the character of art; withers the artwork’s aura; changes the social function of art; and transforms the relation of the masses to art. Art’s new political function is to rehearse a productive alignment between technology and humanity, which it does through cathartic inoculation; tactile critical enjoyment; new experiences of time and space; and a mimetic relationship with technology. Potentially, these transformations grant the mass a right to be reproduced, that is, to reproduce humanity by making use of technological productive forces, or to (re)produce itself aesthetically.

A aura na era do seu anunciado declínio: Em torno de Cópia fiel de Abbas Kiarostami [The Aura in the Era of its Proclaimed Decline: Some Notes on Certified Copy by Abbas Kiarostami].

by João Pedro Cachopo

Published in "Viso", no. 10, 2011 [in Portuguese]

Abstract

The following text focuses on a recent film of the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, Certified... more Abstract

The following text focuses on a recent film of the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, Certified Copy (2010), and delves into it in order to reflect (with an eye to the present) upon the notions of copy, fiction, simulacrum, and, surprisingly enough, aura.

One comes up against these issues due to the “theme” and the “structure” of the movie: considering that it features an art historian discussing the value of copy in art (as in life), and that suddenly, in the middle point of the film, both protagonists (the art historian, and a woman with deep interest in art, with whom he gets acquainted in Italy) seem to act out a relationship. The spectator’s certainties fade out: have James and Elle recently met each other (as the first part of the film suggests), or do they maintain a relationship long since (as whoever watches the movie, having missed the first part, would guess)? The answer turns out to be undecidable.

A fiction unfolds within another fiction; however, none of them have primacy; the copy (the fictitious fiction) becomes independent from the original (the alleged true fiction); a simulacrum comes to the floor. How powerful is the latter? To what extent might a fiction transform life, rescue it from banality, or transfigure it? These questions encourage us to hazard the paradoxical hypothesis of there being a copy with aura. By this hypothesis (as we subvert the traditional association between aura and originality), it is the very transforming power of art (with regard to life) that remains at stake, beyond and independently of the bankruptcy of the distinction between original and copy.

Art's Fateful Hour

by Christopher Long

In 1935 Walter Benjamin wrote that “art’s fateful hour has struck” and that he had “captured its signature” in his... more In 1935 Walter Benjamin wrote that “art’s fateful hour has struck” and that he had “captured its signature” in his essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Technical Reproduction.” Less than a month after these words were written, Martin Heidegger gave a lecture entitled “The Origin of the Work of Art” in Freiburg. These two philosophical reflections on the nature of art, written in the lengthening shadow of European fascism, are brought into relation with one another in this essay in order to draw out the relationship between art and politics in the thinking of Benjamin and Heidegger. By focusing on Benjamin’s conception of the “aura” of the work of art, the article juxtaposes Benjamin’s attempt to locate the critical and emancipatory dimensions of art with Heidegger’s attempt to reinvigorate the aura in order to establish an authentic relation to the origin that might serve as fertile ground for a new vision of politics.

EL CUERPO DES-ENCARNADO. APUNTES PARA UNA TEORÍA DE LA INFANCIA COMO RESISTENCIA

by Mauricio Amar

Published in "ACTUEL MARX INTERVENCIONES N° 9 PRIMER SEMESTRE 2010", pp. 59-75.

El hombre contemporáneo es un ser des-encarnado. En la medida en que el capitalismo se ha extendido de manera extensa... more El hombre contemporáneo es un ser des-encarnado. En la medida en que el capitalismo se ha extendido de manera extensa e intensa por el planeta, el habla ha sido expropiada por el poder, alejando su relación con la experiencia del cuerpo. Este último se transforma así en espacio de consumo, donde el deseo es transformado en valor de cambio. Se bosqueja en este artículo la posibilidad de re-encuentro del hombre con la experiencia, no transformándola en parte del museo de la infancia, ni recurriendo a la tradición, sino trayendo de vuelta una infancia que, en tanto lugar privilegiado del uso del mundo, contiene siempre una posibilidad de re-encarnamiento del cuerpo.

Staging History: Myth, creaturely life and sovereignty in Walter Benjamin's 'The origin of the german Trauerspiel'

by Matias Bascuñan Callis

La idea de Historia Natural: La Alternativa Benjaminiana de Theodor Adorno

by Matias Bascuñan Callis

Free Time / Freeing Time: In Praise of Boredom and Uncertainty (Part II)

by Acacia Warwick

Spending Time / Wasting Time: In Praise of Boredom and Confusion (Part I)

by Acacia Warwick

Politikanın Estetize Edilmesine Karşı Sanatın Politize Edilmesi

by Damla Tezel

"draft only"

Occupy Wall Street: The Liminality of Zuccotti Park

by katherine sullivan

MA Thesis Introduction

by Basit Iqbal

Violence et rationalité

by Andrzej Leder

Benjaminian Reflections: History, Modernity & Poetry

by Rowan Tepper

Apuntes a propósito de la experiencia

by Adriana Segura

Cátedra de Estética, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UNAM.

Resignificar la noción de experiencia fue la consigna de Benjamin hacia la filosofía venidera; para recorrer ese... more Resignificar la noción de experiencia fue la consigna de Benjamin hacia la filosofía venidera; para recorrer ese camino, habrá que preguntarse acerca de las significaciones actuales que desde el uso común, la filosofía y la estética, adquiere la propia noción y cuestionarnos acerca de el tránsito de la experiencia original a la experiencia secularizada.

Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht: The Story of a Friendship (Review)

by Michael Shane Boyle

Theatre Journal (2012)