WALTER BENJAMIN

\\

4
! Jlluminations/
EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HANNAH ARENDT

TRANSLATED BY HARRY ZOHN

, ,.

SCHOCKEN BOOKS • NEW YORK

 Harpel lIbr~f1.

First SCHOCUN PAPERBACK edition 1969

10 9 8 7 84 85 86 Contents
Published by arrangement with Harcourt, Brace & \Vorld, Inc.
(A Helen and KUrt Wolff Book)
INTRODUCTION
Copyright@ 19S5 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt a. M.
. English translation copyright @ 1¢8 by Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. Walter Benjamin: 1892-1940, by Hannah Arendt I

Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 68-2'13 81 UNPACKING MY LIBRARY

Printed in the United States of America
A Talk about Book Collecting 59
Originally published in Germany by Suhrkamp Verlag, ,Ftankfurt a. M.
The Introduction to this book. by Dr. Hannah Arendt, appeared originally THE TASK OF THE TRANSLATOR
as an article in The New Yorker. Copyright @ 1¢8 by Hannah Arendt. An Introduction to the Translation
This reprint omits pages 141-144 of the original Harcourt, Brace & World of Baudelaire's Tableaux parisiens
edition.
Acknowledgment is made for permission to quote from the following: \, THE STORYTELLER
From The Trial. by Franz Kafka, trans. by Edwin and Willa Muir. Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov
Copyright 19J7 and renewed I¢S by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
From The Castle. by Franz Kafka. Copyright 1930, 1954 and renewed
19S8 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. FRANZ KAFKA
ISBN 0-8052·(),L41·2 On the Tenth Anniversary of His Death III

'"PNSl~ SOME REFLECTIONS ON KAFKA

.'"B4 S" S I
WHAT IS EPIC THEATER? 147
\q'l
G.L \! ON SOME MOTIFS IN BAUDELAIRE
Ho.r? THE IMAGE OF PROUST . 201

'v 0 THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE

OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION 21 7

f\ THESES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

EDITOR'S NOTE

INDEX OF NAMES
 ...
The Work of Art
in the Age of Mechanical RtproductiolL

"Our fine arts were developed, their types and uses were estab-
lished, in times very different from the prese1lt, by men whose
.. power of action upon things was insignificant in comparison with
ours. But the amazing growth of our techniques, the adaptability
and precision they have attained, the ideas and habits they are
creating, make it a certainty that profound changes are impending
in the ancient craft of the Beautiful. In all the arts there is a
. , physical component which can no longer be considered or treated
as it used to be, which cannot remain unaffected by our modern
knowledge and power. For the last twenty years neither matter
nor space nor time has been what it was from time immemorial.
We must expect great innovations to transform the entire tech-
nique of the arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself and
perhaps even bringing about an amazing change in OUT very no-
tion of art." •
-Paul Valery, pricEs SUJl L'AllT,
"La Conquete de l'ubiquite," Paris.

PREFACE

When Marx undertook his critique of the capitalistic mode

of production, this mode was in its infancy. Marx directed his
efforts in such a way as to give them prognostic value. He went
back to the basic conditions underlying capitalistic production
and through his presentation showed what could be expected of
capitalism in the future. The result was that one could expect it
not only to exploit the proletariat with increasing intensity, but
ultimately to create conditions which would make it possible to
abolish capitalism itself.
The transformation of the superstructure, which takes place
• Quoted from Paul Valery, Aesthetics, "The Conquest of Ubiquity,"
translated by Ralph Manheim, p. 225. Pantheon Books, Bollingen Series, New
York, 1964.

21 7
 IUumiruniom
The JV ork of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
far more slowly than that of the substructure, has taken more
than half a century to manifest in all areas of cul~re th~ c~ange rep~~duction of writing, has brought about in literature are a
in the conditions of production. Only tod~y can. It be mdlcated familIar st?ry. However, within the phenomenon which we are
what form this has taken. Certain prognostlc reqUlrements should here examml~g from the pe~spective. of world history, print is
be met by these statements. However, theses about the art of the m~rely a special, though particularly lmportant, case. During the
proletariat after its assumption of power or about the art of a MIddle A~es .engraving and etching were added to the woodcut;
classless society would have less bearing on these demands than at the begmnmg of the nineteenth century lithography made its
appearance.
theses about the developmental tendencies of art und~r prese?t
conditions of production. Their dialectic is no less ?Qtlceable m ~ith lithography the technique of reproduction reached an
the superstructure than in the economy. It would therefore be ~ssen?any new stage. This much more direct process was dis-
wrong to underestimate the value of such theses as a weapon. ?n~lshed by the tracing of the design on a stone rather than its
They brush aside a number of outmoded concepts, such as crea- mCISI?n on a bl~ck of wood or its etching on a copperplate and
tivity rand genius, eternal value and mystery-concepts .wh~se permItted graphic art for the first time to put its products on the
uncontrolled (and at present almost uncontr~llable) apphcatlon marke.t, not only i~ large numbers as hitherto, but also in daily
would lead to a processing of data in the Fasclst ~ense. The con- changmg ~orms. ~lthography enabled. graphic art to illustrate
. cepts which are introduced into the theory of art m what follows ~veryday hfe, and It began to keep pace with printing.~But only
differ from the more familiar terms in that they are completely a few decades after its inve.ntio?, lithography was _surpassed by
useless for the purposes of Fascism. ~hey are, on the ?ther han~, phot~graphy. For the first tIme m the process of pictorial repro-
useful for the formulation of revolutlonary demands m the poh- ~u~tIon, p~otography freed the hand of the most important ar-
tics of art. tlStl~ fu?ctlons whic.h henceforth devolved only upon the eye
,looking mto a lens. Smce the eye perceives more swiftly than the.
hand can draw, the process of pictorial reproduction was accel-
I erated so enon;nously that .it could k~ep pace with speech. A_filrn_
.In principle a work of art has always been reproduci?le. Man- operator shootlng a scene m the studIO captures the images at the
made artifacts could always be imitated by men. Rephc~ w~re spee? of an actor's speech. Just as lithography virtually implied
made by pupils in practice of their craft, by masters fo~ dlffusl?g the dlustrated newspaper, so did photography foreshadow the
their .works" and, finally, by third parties in the pursult of gam. sound film. The technical reproduction of sound was tackled at
':

Mechanical reproduction of a .work of art! how~ver, represen.~ the end of the last century. These convergent endeavors made
something,. new. Historically, It advanced ~nterrr."ttently and m predictable a situation which Paul Valery pointed up in this sen-
leaps at long intervals, but with accelerated mtenslty: The Greeks tence: "Just as water, gas, and electricity are brought into our
knew only two procedures of technically reproducmg ~orks of houses from far off to satisfy our needs in response to a minimal
art: .founding and stamping. Bronzes, terra cottas,. and COl?S were eff~rt, so. we shall be supplied with visual or auditory images,
the 'only art works which they could produce m quantlty. All whIch wlll appear and disappear at a simple movement of the
others were unique and could not be mecha~cally reprodu~ed. hand, hardly more than a sign" (op. cit., p. 226). Around 1900
With the woodcut graphic art became mechamcally repro.duclble te~hnic~l reproduction had reached a standard that not only per-
for the first time, long before script be.ca~e reproduclble. by mItted It to reproduce all transmitted works of art and thus to
print. The enormous changes which pnntmg, the mechanlcal ~ause the most profound change. in their impact upon the public;
It also had captured a place of Its own among the artistic proc-
~"
I
i'
I
i
 The Work of Art in the Age of MechtnUcal Reproduction
lUuminatiom
esses. For the study of this standard nothing is more re~ealing be it in the fo~ of a photograph or a phonograph record. The
than the nature of the repercussions that these two different cathedral leaves Its locale to be received in the studio of a lover
manifestations-the reproduction of works of art and the art of of art; the choral production, performed in an auditorium or in
the open air, resounds in the drawing room.
-the film-have had on art in its traditional form.
~he situations into which the product of mechanical repro-
ductIOn can be brought may not touch the actual work of art
II
I yet the quality of its presence is always depreciated. This hold~
Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of ~rt is l~ck­ not. only for ~he art. work but also, for instance, for a landscape
ing in one element: its presence in time and sp~~e, I~ umq?e 'I which passes In reVIew before the spectator in a movie. In the
existence at the place where it happens to be. This un.lqu~ eXIS- case ?f. the. a~t object, a ~ost sensitive nucleus-namely, its au-
" tence of the work of art determined the history to which It was thentiCIty-IS Interfered WIth whereas no natural object is vulner-
" subject throughout the time of its existence .. This in~l?des the able on that score. The authenticity of a thing is the essence of
:.~ changes which it may have suffered in p.hY~lcal condlt~o~ over all t~at is tra~smissi~le fro~ its beginning, ranging from its sub-
sta~tlve duration to Its testImony to the history which it has ex-
'.. the years as well as the various changes In Its o~ershlp, ~e \
" traces of the first can be revealed only by chemical or phys.lcal
'1

! penenced. Since ~h~ historical testimony rests on the authenticity,

analyses' which it is impossible to perform. ?n a r~producnon; the f~rmer, too, IS Jeopardized by reproduction when substantive
changes of ownership. are subject ~o. a tradltlon which must be dura~on ~eases t? matt~r. And what is really jeopardized when
the hlston~al tesnmony IS affected is the authority of the object.8
traced from the situation of the ongInal.
',' ~_' The presence of the original is the prerequis~te to the con-. One might subsume the eliminated element in the term "aura"
_ ceptofautheriticity. Chemical analyses of the panna ?f a bronze and go o~ to .say: that which withers in the age of mechanical
rep~oductlon IS the a~ra .of the work of art. This is a sympto-
Can' help to establish this, as does the proof that a given manu-
" script of the Middle Ages stems from ~n. ar~hive o.f the fift~enth matIc ~rocess who~e slgmficance points beyond the realm of art.
, century. The whole sphere of ~uthentlclty I~ ~~tsl~e techmcal- One might generalIze by saying: the technique of reproduction
deta~hes the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By
and, of course~- not only techmcal-r~roduclblhty.. Confronted
with its manual reproduction, which was u~ually brand~d as ~ makmg ~any r~productions ~t substi~~es a plurality of copies
Jorgeiy;--the original preserved all it;s authonty; ?ot so 'VIS a 'VIS for a urnque eXIstence. And In permIttIng the reproduction to
-- technical rq>roduction. The reason IS twofold. FIrst, process re- meet the beholder or listener in his own particular situation, it
'pfOductionis more independent of the original than manual.re- reactivates the object reproduced. These two processes lead to a1
p'~i:ictiln:' For 'example, in photogr~p?y, process reprod~cnon tremendous shattering of tradition which is the obverse of the
'\:.can,t)rlng out those aspects of the original that .are ~na~Inable contemporary crisis and renewal of mankind. Both processes are
inti~ately connected with the contemporary mass movements.
'"- to-~ the naked eye yet accessible to the lens, w~ch IS adJust~ble
: arid chooses its angle at will. And photographic reproductIOn, ~helr mo~t ~owerful agent is the film. Its social significance, par-
, with the aid of certain processes, such as enlargeme~t. or slow tlcularly In Its most positive form, is inconceivable without its
~estructive, cathartic aspect, that is, the liquidation of the tradi-
motion, can capture images which escape natural vIsion... ~ec­
ondly, technical reproduction can put the copy of ~h~ ,or~gInal tIOnal value of the cultural heritage. This phenomenon is most
Into situations which would be out of reach for the ongmalltself. ~alpable in the great historical films. It extends to ever new posi-
-Above all, it enables the original to meet the beholder halfway, tIOns. In 1927 Abel Gance exclaimed enthusiastically: "Shake-
221
uo
 The JVork of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
1l1umiutions •
speare, Rembrandt Beethoven will make films •.. all legends, all your eyes a mountain range on the horizon or a branch which
mythologies and ail myths, all founders of re.ligion, and the very casts it~ shadow over you, you experience the aura of those
religions • • • await their exposed resurreCtion, and the her?es moun tams, of that branch. This image makes it easy to compre-
crowd each other at the gate."· Presumably without intendmg hend the social bases of the contemporary decay of the aura. It
it, he issued an invitation to a far-reaching liquidatio rests on two circumstances, both of which are related to the in-
creasin~ significance of the masses in contemporary life. Namely,
t?e deSire of contempo~ary. masses to bring things "closer" spa-
" III nally and humanly, whIch IS just as ardent as their bent toward
overcoming the uniqueness of every reality by accepting its re-
-, During long periods of hi~t07' th~ mode of h~ .
prod~ction.t Every day the urge grows stronger to get hold of
ception changes with humaruty s entlf~ m~de of ~lstence. The
manner in which human sense perception IS org ruzed, the me- a.n obJect a~ very close range b~ way of its likeness, its reproduc-
dium in which it is accomplished, is determined ot only by na- tl.on. Unmistakably, ~eproductIon as offered by picture maga-
zmes an? newsreels dIffers from the image seen by the unarmed
'tore but by historical circumstances as well.. e fifth century,
eye. Umqueness and permanence are as closely linked in the lat-
with its great shifts of population, saw the blf h of the late Ro-
ter as are transitoriness and reproducibility in the former. To
.' man. art industry and the Vienna Genesis,. a .d there developed
pry an ?bject from its shell, to destroy its aura, is the mark of a
; ,.not! only an art different from that of ann. Ity but also a ~ew perceptIon whose "sense of the universal equality of things" has
)dnd of perception. The scholars of t~e V ennese ~chool, ~l~gl In~reased to such a degree that it extracts it even from a unique
",and . Wickhoff, who resisted the weIght of classICal tradmon obJect by means of reproduction. Thus is manifested in the field
: under which these later art forms had bee buried, were the first of perception what in the theoretical sphere is noticeable in the
to· draw conclusions from them conce ng the organization of increasing imponance of statistics. The adjustment of reality to
: perception at the time. However far-r hing their insight, these the masses and of the masses to reality is a process of unlimited
scholars limited themselves to showi the significant, formal scope, as much for thinking as for perception.
hallmark which characterized percep on in late Roman times.
They did not attempt-and, perhaps, saw no way-to show.the
IV
. social transformations expressed by ese changes of percepnon.
The conditions for an analogous insi ht are more favorable In the . The un.iqueness o~ a work of art is inseparable from its being
present. And if changes in the med;, m of contemporary percep- Imbedded In the fabrIC of tradition. This tradition itself is thor-
don can be comprehended as decay of the aura, it is possible to oughly alive and extremely changeable. An ancient statue of
show its social causes. / Venus, for example, stood in a different traditional context with
-"}"The concept of aura which was proposed above with refer- the Greeks, who made it an object of veneration, than with the
ence'to historical objects may usefully be illustrated with refer- clerics of the Middle Ages, who viewed it as an ominous idol.
\ ence to the aura of natural ones.l~e define the aura of th~ latter Both of th.e~, however, ~~re equally confronted with its unique-
as the unique phenomenon of a dIStance, however close It ~ay ness, that IS, ItS aura. OrIgInally the contextual integration of an
be. If, while resting on a summer afternoon, you follow WIth in t~adition found i~ ~xpressi?n in the ~ult. We know that the \
earlIest art works orIgmated In the servIce of a ritual-first the
. • Abel Gance, "Le Temps de l'image est venu," VArt cmematograpb- magical, then the religious kind. It is significant that the existence
lque, VoL J, pp. 94 f, Paris, 191 7.
32J
 The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
1l1umin4tions • existence, not their being on view. The elk portrayed by the man
of the work of art with reference to its aura is never entirely of t~e Stone. Age on the walls of his cave was an instrument of
separated from its ritual function. 1I In oth~r wo~ds., th~ unique magIC. He did expose it to his fellow men, but in the main it was
value of the "authentic" work of art has Its baslS 10 nrual, the meant for the spirits. Today the cult value would seem to de-
location of its original use value. Th!s ri~alistic bas~s, however mand that. the work of art remain hidden. Certain statues of gods
remote, is still recognizable as seculanzed ntual even In the most are a~cesslble only to the priest in the cella; certain Madonnas
profane forms of the cult o~ beauty.8 The se<:u!ar cult of beauty, r~maIn covered nearly all year round; certain sculptures on me-
developed during the Renal~anc~ ~nd p~e~all~ng for. three cen- dle.val cathedrals. are. invisible to the spectator on ground level.
turies, clearly showed that ntuallStlc basIS In ItS decline and the WI~h the .emanCIpatlOn. ?f the various art practices from ritual
first deep crisis which befell it, With the advent of the ~rst truly go. Incre.asIng 0pporturutles for the exhibition of their products.
revolutionary means of reproduction, photography, sI~ulta~~­ It IS eaSIer to exhibit a portrait bust that can be sent here and
ously with the rise of socialism, art sensed the appro~chIng cnsls there than to exhibit the statue of a divinity that has its fixed
which has become evident a century later. At the tlme, art re- place ~n the interio: of a temple. The same holds for the painting
o acted with the doctrine of fart pour fart, that is, with a theology as agaInst the mosaic or fresco that preceded it. And even though
" of art. This gave rise to what might be called a negative theology the public presentability of a mass originally may have been just
_in the form of the idea of "pure" art, which not only denied any as great as that of a symphony, the latter originated at the mo-
. social function of art but also any categorizing by subject matter. ment when its public presentability promised to surpass that of
. (In poetry, Mallarme was the first to take. this position.~ the mass .
., An analysis of art in the age of mecharucal reproductIO? must With the. different methods of technical reproduction of a
, do justice to these relationships, for they lead us to an all~lmpor- work of art, Its fitness for exhibition increased to such an extent
tint insight: for the first time in world histor>:", mecha.~cal re-
that . th~ quantitative s.hift b~tween its two poles turned into a
. production emancipates the work of art from Its parasltlcal de- ~uah~tlve transformatlon of Its nature. This is comparable to the
_ pendence on ritual. To an ever greater ~egree the work of. ~rt sltuatlon of the work of art in prehistoric times when, by the
<reproduced becomes the work of art deSIgned for reproducibIl- ~bsolute emphasis on its cult value, it was, first and foremost, an
ity.' From a photographic negative, ~?r exampl,~' o?e can make Instrument of magic. Only later did it come to be recognized as
.any number of prints; to ask. fo~ the authentI~. pnnt makes no a w.ork of. a~, In the same way today, by the absolute emphasis
But the instant the crltenon of authentlCIty ceases ~o be
sense. on Its exhlbltlon value the work of art becomes a creation with
. applicable to artistic production, the total fun~tion of art IS re- entirely new functions, among which the one we are conscious
.~versed. Instead of being based on ritual, it begInS to be based on of, ,the artis~c function, later may be recognized as incidenta1.9
lanother practice-politics. ThIS muc.h IS certain: t?day. photography and the film are the
most serviceable exemphficatlons of this new function.
,
." ';' ~

.,.,' 'v
.: . Works of art are received and valued on different planes. VI
Two polar types stand out: With. ~~e, the accent is on thea cult In photogr~phy, exhibition value begins to displace cult value
value' with the other, on the exhlbltlon value of the work. Ar- a!l along the h~e. B~t cult value does not give way without re-
tistic' production begins with ceremonial objects destined to SIstance, It retIres Into an ultimate retrenchment: the human
serve. in a cult. One may assume that what mattered was their
zzr
 The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Illuminations
countenance. It is no accident that the portrait was the focal t~on ~f art transcended the perspective of the century; for a long
'point of early photography. The cult of remembrance of loved tlm~ It even escaped that of the twentieth century, which ex-
'ones, absent or dead, offers a last refuge for the cult value of the penenced the development of the film.
pictUre. For the last. time the a~lfa emanates from the e~rl.y pho- Earlier much futile thought had been devoted to the question
tographs in the fleet10g expressIOn of a human face. This IS what of whether photography is an art. The primary question-
constitutes their melancholy, incomparable beauty. But as man whethe~ the very invention of photography had not transfonned
withdraws from the photographic image, the exhibition value for the entire nature of art-was not raised. Soon the film theoreti-
the first time shows its superiority to the ritual valu~. ~o have cians asked the same ill-considered question with regard to the
pinpointed this new stage constitutes the incompara~le slgmficanc~ film. But the difficulties which photography caused traditional
of Atget, who, around 1900, took photographs of deserted Pans aesthetics were mere child's playas compared to those raised by
streets. It has quite justly been said of him that he ph?tographed the fi.lm. Whence the insensitive and forced character of early
theones of the film. Abel Gance, for instance, compares the film
i
them like scenes of crime. The scene of a crime, too, IS deserted;
.it is photographed for the purpose of establishing evidence. With with hieroglyphs: "Here, by a remarkable regression, we have
Atget; photographs ~ecom~ standar~ ~vide~c~ for historical oc- come back to the level of expression of the Egyptians. • • • Pic-
currences, and acqUIre a hidden polmcal sl~mficance. They d~­ torial language has not yet matured because our eyes have not
mand a specific kind of approac?; free-.float1Og contemplation IS y~t adjusted to it. There is as yet insufficient respect for, insuffi-
not appropriate to them. They stir the ~Iewe~; he feels ch~llenged cient cult of, what it expresses."· Or, in the words of Severin-
by them in a new way. At the same time picture magazmes be- Mars: "What an has been granted a dream more poetical and
gin to put up signposts for him, right ones or wr~ng ones, no more real at the same time! Approached in this fashion the film
matter. For the first time, captions have become obhgatory. And might ~epres~nt an incompa~able means of expression. Only the
it is clear that they have an altogether di~erent chara~ter t~an most hlgh-mm~ed. persons, In the most perfect and mysterious
the' title of a painting. The directives which ~he captions give moments of their bves, should be allowed to enter its ambience." t
to those looking at pictures in illustrated magazmes soon become Alexandre Arnoux concludes his fantasy about the silent film
'even more explicit and more imperative in the fil~ where the ,":ith the question: "Do not all the bold descriptions we have
meaning of each single picture appears to be prescnbed by the given amount to the definition of prayer?":t It is instructive to
;sequence of all preceding ones. note how their desire to class the film among the "arts" forces
these the~retic~ans to read ritual elements in~o it-with a striking
lack of discretion. Yet when these speculations were published,
VII films like L'Opinion publique and The Gold Rush had already
.!., Thenineteenth-century dispute as to the artistic value of appeared. This, however, did not keep Abel Gance from ad-
painting versus photography today seems devious .and co~fuse~. ducing hieroglyphs for purposes of comparison, nor Severin-
This does not diminish its importance, however; If anythl~g, ~t Mars from sp~aking of the ~l~ as one might speak of paintings
underlines it. The dispute was in fact the symptom of a histon- by Fra A~gebco. Charac~e~lStIcally, even today ultrareactionary
cal transformation the universal impact of which was not real- authors gIVe the film a Similar contextual significance-if not an
ized by either of the rivals. When the age of mechanical repr?-
• A!>el ~ance, Ope cit., pp. 100-1.
duction separated art from its basis in cu!t, the sem~lance of Its t 8evenn-Mars. quoted by Abel Gance, Ope cit., p. 100.
autonomy disappeared forever. The resultmg change 10 the func- t Alexandre Arnoux. Cinema pris, 1929. p. 18.
 Illuminations • The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
outright sacred one, then at least a supernatural one. Comme?tin~ proach is that of testing. to This is not the approach to which cult
on Max Reinhardt's film version of A M;dsumm~r N,g~t s values may be exposed.
Dream Werlel states that undoubtedly it was the stenle copr1Og
of the 'exterior world with its streets, interiors, railroad statlOns, IX
restaurants, motorcars, and beaches which until now had ob-
structed the elevation of the film to the realm of art. "The film For the film, what matters primarily is that the actor repre-
has not yet realized its true meaning, its real possibilities ... thc:s e sents himself to the public before the camera, rather than repre-
consist in its unique faculty to expre~ bf n~tural means and WIth senting someone else. One of the first to sense the actor's meta-
incomparable persuasiveness all that IS faIryhke, m~L.Velous, super- morphosis by this form of testing was Pirandello. Though his
remarks on the subject in his novel Si Gira were limited to the
natural" • negative aspects of the question and to the silent film only, this
hardly impairs their validity. For in this respect, the sound film
VIII did not change anything essential. What matters is that the part
The artistic performance of a stage actor is definitely pre- is acted not for an audience but for a mechanical contrivance-
sented to the public by the actor in person.; that of the screen in the case of the sound film, for two of them. "The film actor,"
. actor, however, is presented by a camera, WIth a twofold conse- wrote Pirandello, "feels as if in exile-exiled not only from the
quence. The camera that presents the performance of the fi~m stage but also from himself. With a vague sense of discomfort
he feels inexplicable emptiness: his body loses its corporeality,
actor to the public need not respect the performance as. an 10-
it evaporates, it is deprived of reality, life, voice, and the noises
tegral whole. Guided by the cameraman, the camera connnually
caused by his moving about, in order to be changed into a mute
changes its position with respect to the performance. The se-
image, flickering an instant on the screen, then vanishing into
quence of positional views which the editor composes from the
silence.... The projector will play with his shadow before the
.material supplied him constitutes the. comple~ed fil~. It com- public, and he himself must be content to play before the cam-
.prises certain factors of movement whIch are 10 reahty those of era." • This situation might also be characterized as follows: for
the camera, not to mention special camera angles, close-up~, etc. the first time-and this is the effect of the film-man has to op-
e Hence, the performance of the actor is subjected to a sertes of erate with his whole living person, yet forgoing its aura. For
. optical tests. This is the first consequence of the fact that the aura is tied to his presence; there can be no replica of it. The
actor's performance is presented by means of a camera. Al~o, the aura which, on the stage, emanates from Macbeth, cannot be
film actor lacks the opportunity of the stage actor to adjust to separated for the spectators from that of the actor. However, the
the audience during his performance, since h~ does .not prese~t singularity of the shot in the studio is that the camera is substi-
his performance to the audience in person. This perm~ts t?e audi- tuted for the public. Consequently, the aura that envelops the
ence to take the position of a critic, witho~t e~pe~Ienc~g ~ny actor vanishes, and with it the aura of the figure he portrays.
,personal contact with the. act~r. ~e a~dIence s Idennficanon It is not surprising that it should be a dramatist such as Piran-
'with the actor ~ really an Idennficanon WIth the camera. ~onse- dello who, in characterizing the film, inadvertently touches on
quently the audience takes the position of the camera; Its ap- the very crisis in which we see the theater. Any thorough study
• Franz Werfel, "Ein Sommernachtstraum, Ein Film von Shakespeare • Luigi Pirandello, Si Gira, quoted by Leon Pierre-Quint. "Signification
and Reinhardt," Neuel Wimer Journal, cited in Lu IS, November, 1935· du cinema." L'Art cinbnatographique, Ope cit., pp. 14-15.
 Illtmrhr4titnU The JVork of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

proves that there is indeed no greater contrast than that of the But now the. re~ected image has become separable, transportable.
stage play to a work of art that is completely subject to or, like And where IS It transported? Before the public.12 Never for a
the film, founded in, mechanical reproduction. Experts have long moment does the screen actor cease to be conscious of this fact.
recognized that in the film "the greatest effects are almost always While f~cing the camera he knows that ultimately he will face
obtained by 'acting' as little as possible. . . .tt In 1931 Rudolf the pubhc, the consumers who constitute the market. This mar-
Amheim saw "the latest trend ••. in treating the actor as a stage ket, where he offers not only his labor but also his whole self, his
prop chosen for its characteristics and ... inserted at the proper hea~t and soul, is beyond his reach. During the shooting he has
place." 11 With this idea something else is closely connected. The as htt~e contact with it as ~ny article made in a factory. This may
·.• stage actor identifies himself with the character of ph; role. The cont~Ibute to that oppreSSIOn, that new anxiety which, according
·:film 'actor very often is denied this opportunity. His creation is to Puandello, grips the actor before the camera. The film re-
by, no means all of a piece; it is composed of many separate per- spo~~s to the. sh,~iveli~g of the au~a with an artificial build-up of
formances. Besides certain fortuitous considerations, such as cost the personalIty outsIde the studIO. The cult of the movie star,
lof ;Studio, availability of fellow players, decor, etc., there are fo~tered by the money of the film industry, preserves not the
:elementary necessities of equipment that split the actor's work unique aura of the person. but the "spell of the personality," the
into a series of mountable episodes. In particular, lighting and its phony spell of ~ commodity. So long as the movie-makers' capi-
instaUation require the presentation of an event that, on the tal sets. the fashIon, as a rule no other revolutionary merit can be
:screen, unfolds as a rapid and unified scene, in a sequence of ac~~e~lted to to~~y's film than the promotion of a revolutionary
'separate shootings which may take hours at the studio; not to Cfltlclsm of tradmonal concepts of art. We do not deny that in
'mentiOn more obvious montage. Thus a jump from the window some ~ases to~ar's films can also promote revolutionary criticism
can be shot in the studio as a jump from a scaffold, and the en- of SOCial condmons, even of the distribution of property. How-
~suing flight, if need be, can be shot weeks later when outdoor ev~r, our . present study is no more specifically concerned with
<scenes are taken. Far more paradoxical cases can easily be con- thiS t~an. IS the fi~m production of Western Europe.
·'Sttued. Let us assume that an actor is supposed to be startled by It IS Inherent III the technique of the film as well as that of
: a knock at the door. If his reaction is not satisfactory, the di- sports that everybody who witnesses its accomplishments is some-
· rector can' resort to an expedient: when the actor happens to be what of an expert. This ~s obvious ~o a?yone listening to a group
· af the' studio again he has a shot fired behind him without his of newspaper b~ys leaning on. therr bIcycles and discussing the
, being forewarned of it. The frightened reaction can be shot now outc?me of a bIcycle race. It IS not for nothing that newspaper
:and be cut into the screen version. Nothing more strikingly pubhs~ers arrange races for their delivery boys. These arouse
'shoWs that art has left the realm of the "beautiful semblance" great I?terest ~mong the p.articipants, for the victor has an op-
· which;' so .far, had been taken to be the only sphere where art portunity to flse from dehvery boy to professional racer. Sim-
·could thrive. Ilarly, the newsre~l offers every.one the opportunity to rise from
p~sser-by to mOVIe extra. In thIS way any man might even find
hImself pa~ of a wo~k of .art, as wimess Vertoff's Three S01lgS
: ..: X
A~out Lenm or ~vens. Bormage. Any man today can lay claim to
j: The feeling of strangeness that overcomes the actor before bemg filmed. :rhls. clalI~ ca~ best be elucidated by a comparative
the camera, as Pirandello describes it, is basically of the same kind look at the hlstoncal SItuatIOn of contemporary literature.
as the estrangement felt before one's own image in the mirror. For centuries a small number of writers were confronted by

ZJO 2JI
 lUrmriMtions The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

'many thousands of readers. This changed toward the end of ~he extraneous accessories as camera equipment, lighting machinery,
last century. With the increasing extension of the pr~ss, which staff assistants, etc.-unless his eye were on a line parallel with the
kept placing new political, religious, scientific, professIOnal, and lens. This circumstance, more than any other, renders super-
local organs before the readers, an increasing numb~r of read~rs ficial and insignificant any possible similarity between a scene in
became writers-at first, occasional ones. It began With the daily the studio and one on the stage. In the theater one is well aware
n
press opening to its readers space for "letters to the editor. And of the place from which the play cannot immediately be de-
:~ today there is hardly a gainfully e~ployed Eu~opean who could tected as illusionary. There is no such place for the movie scene
;. not, in principle, find an opporturuty to publish somewhere or that is being shot. Its illusionary nature is that of the second de-
'. other comments on his work, grievances, documenprry reports, gree, the result of cutting. That is to say, in the studio the me-
: or"mat sort of thing. Thus, the distinction between author and chanical equipment has penetrated so deeply into reality that its
":~ public is about to lose its basic character. The difference becomes pure aspect freed from the foreign substance of equipment is the
. merely functional; it may vary f:om case. to case. At any ~o- result of a special procedure, namely, the shooting by the spe-
ment the reader is ready to tum Into a wnter. As e~p~rt, which cially adjusted camera and the mounting of the shot together
. he had to become willy-nilly in an extremely speCialIzed. work with other similar ones. The equipment-free aspect of reality
process, even if only in some ~inor r~spect, the :eade~ gal'nS ac- here has become the height of artifice; the sight of immediate
cess. to authorship. In the S?vlet Uruon w~rk I?:elf IS given a reality has become an orchid in the land of technology.
voice. To present it verbally 15 part of a man s abIlity to .perform Even more revealing is the comparison of these circumstances,
the'work. Literary license is now founded on polytechruc rather which differ so much from those of the theater, with the situa-
thaD specialized training and thus becomes common prope~.13 tion in painting. Here the question is: How does the cameraman
: .: All this can easily be applied to the film, w~ere translOons compare with the painter? To answer this we take recourse to
that in literature took centuries have come about In a decade. In an analogy with a surgical operation. The surgeon represents the
cinematic practice, particularly in Russia, this change-over has polar opposite of the magician. The magician heals a sick person
partially become established reality. Som~ of the players whom by the laying on of hands; the surgeon cuts into the patient's
we meet in Russian films are not actors In our sense but people body. The magician maintains the natural distance between the
who portray themselves-and primarily in their own work proc- patient and himself; though he reduces it very slightly by the
ess.: In .Western Europe the capitalistic e~~loitation. of the ~lm laying on of hands, he greatly increases it by virtue of his au-
denies consideration to modem man's leglOmate claim to beIng thority. The surgeon does exactly the reverse; he greatly dimin-
reproduced. Under these circumstances the film. ind~try is try~ng ishes the distance between himself and the patient by penetrating
hard to spur the interest of the masses through IllUSIOn-promotIng into the patient's body, and increases it but little by the caution
spectacles and dubious speculations. with which his hand moves among the organs. In short, in con-
trast to the magician-who is still hidden in the medical practi-
tioner-the surgeon at the decisive moment abstains from facing
.i,.XI ": the patient man to man; rather, it is through the operation tbat
'. The shooting 'of a film, especially of ~ sound film,. affords a he penetrates into him.
spectacle unimaginable anywhere at any nme ~efore this. It pre- Magician and surgeon compare to painter and cameraman.
sents a' process in which it is impossible to assign to a spectator The painter maintains in his work a natural distance from reality,
a viewpoint which would exclude from the actual scene such the cameraman penetrates deeply into its web.14 There is a tre-

ZJJ
 lUUf'Ifin4tions The JVork of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
mendous difference between the pictures they obtain. That of the ture at all times, for the epic poem in the past, and for the movie
painter is a total one, that of the cameraman consists of multiple today. Although this circumstance in itself should not lead one
fragments which are assembled under a ne~ law. Thus, for. c~n­ to c~nclusions about the social role of painting, it does constitute
temporary man the representation of reality by t~e film. IS I~­ a s~nous threa.t as .soon as painting, under special conditions and,
comparably more significant than that of t~e pamter, s~nce It as It were, agamst Its nature, is confronted directly by the masses.
offers, precisely because of the thoroughgomg pe~meatl~n ~f In. the churches and monasteries of the Middle Ages and at the
reality with mechanical equipmen~, an aspect o~ reah.ty which IS pn~cely cour~ up to ~he. end ~f the eighteenth century, a col-
freo ·of all equipment. And that IS what one IS entitled to ask lective receptIOn of pamtmgs dId not occur simultaneously, but
from a work of art. ,. • by graduated and hierarchized mediation. The change that has
come about is an expression of the particular conflict in which
'! ...•. ' pa~nt~ng was implicate~ ?y the mechanical reproducibility of
'XlI
i . ·~i pamtl~gs. Although pamtmgs began to be publicly exhibited in
'f~~.~~M~hani~ reproduction of art changes the reaction ~f the gallenes and salons, there was no way for the masses to organize
'masses toward art. The reactionary attitude toward a PICasSO and control themselves in their reception. lII Thus the same public
,. painting changes into the progressive reaction toward a Ch.aplin ~hich responds in a progressi~e manner toward a grotesque film
. movie. The progressive reaction is characterized by. the dlrec~, IS bound to respond m a reactIonary manner to surrealism.
, intimateJusion of visual and emotional enjoyment With the on-
. entation of the expert. Such fusion is of great social significance. X I II
,< The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form,
the.sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by .The characteristic~ of the film lie not only in the manner in
the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the whIch man presents himself to mechanical equipment but also in
truly; new is criticized with aversion. With regard to the screen, the man~er i~ which, by means of this apparatus, man can rep-
the critical and the receptive attitudes of the public coincide. The resent hIS envlro~ment. A .glance at occupational psychology il-
, decisive. reason for this is that individual reactions are predeter- ~ustrates t?e. testI~g capacIty of the equipment. Psychoanalysis
mined by the mass audience response they are about to produce, Illustrates It In a dIfferent perspective. The film has enriched our
and this is nowhere more pronounced than in the film. The mo- field of perceP.tion with m~thods which can be illustrated by
rnent;these ,responses become manifest they control each other. those of FreudIan theory. FIfty years ago, a slip of the tongue
_Again, the. comparison with painting is. fruitful. A painting has p~ssed more or less. unno.ticed. Only exceptionally may such a
: always had an ex~ellent chance to be vle~ed by o?e .person or slIp have revealed dImenSIOns of depth in a conversation which
~ • by" a Jew. ,The Simultaneous contemplatIon of pamtmgs by a had seemed to be taking its course on the surface. Since the Psy-
; ~ largc, public, such as developed in the nineteenth century, is an ~hopathology of Everyday Life things have changed. This book
early symptom of the crisis of painting, a crisis which was ~y Isolated and made analyzable things which had heretofore floated
no means occasioned exclusively by photography but rather In a.long unnoticed in ~he broad stream of perception. For the en-
a relatively independent manner by the appeal of art works to tIre spectrum of optIcal, and now also acoustical, perception the
,thc masses. ~Im has brought about a similar deepening of apperception. It
.,,:Paintingsimply is in no position to present an object fo~ si- IS only an obverse of this fact that behavior items shown in a
niultancous collective experience, as it was possible for archltec- movie can be analyzed much more precisely and from more
 lllumin4tions
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
points of view than those presented on paintings or on the stage. by man. Even if one has a general knowledge of the way people
As cOmpared with painting, filmed behavior lends itself m~re
readily to analysis because of its incomparably more preCIse
~alk, one knows not?ing of a person's posture during the frac-
tional ~econ~. of a stnde. The act of reaching for a lighter or a
, statements of the situation. In comparison with the stage scene,
spoon IS famIlIar routine, yet we hardly know what really goes on
~ the filmed behavior item lends itself more readily to analysis be-
between hand and metal, not to mention how this fluctuates with
-ause it can be isolated more easily. This circumstance derives our ~oods. Here the camera intervenes with the resources of its
its chief imponance from its tendency to promote the mu~al
I?wermgs and liftings, its interruptions and isolations its exten-
penetration of art and science. Ac~ally, of a. scr~ened beh~vlOr sIon~ and accelerations, its enlargements and reductions: The cam-
item which is neatly brought out m a certam Sltu~don, hke a
era mtr~duc~s us to unconscious optics as does PSYChoanalysis to
muscle of a body, it is difficult to say which is more fascinating, unconSCIOUS Impulses.
its artistic value or its value for science. To demonstrate the
identity of the artistic and scientific. uses of photography w?ich
XIV
,heretofore usually were separated will be one of the revolutlon-
;:ary functions of the film. 141 - • •
One of the f~remost tasks of art has always been the creation
,:: "By close-ups of the things around ~s, by focusmg on hl~~en of a demand which could be fully satisfied only later. lT The his-
. details: of familiar objects, by explormg commonplace mlhens
tory of evexr art form shows critical epochs in which a certain
under the ingenious guidance of the camera, the film, on the one
a~ form aspIres to e~ects which could be fully obtained only
,band,extends our comprehension of the necessities which ~ule with a changed techmcal standard, that is to say, in a new art
our lives; on the other hand, it manages to assure us of an Im-
for~. The e~travagances and crudities of art which thus appear,
mense and unexpected field of action. Our taverns and our met-
partIcularly m .the .so-calle? de~adent epochs, actually arise from
ropolitan streets, our offices and furnished rooms, our railroad
the nu~leus of Its rIchest hIstorIcal energies. In recent years, such
stations and our factories appeared to have us locked up hope- barbarIsms were abundant in Dadaism. It is only now that its im-
lessly.'Then came the film and burst this prison-world a~under pul.se becom~s discernible: Dadaism attempted to create by pic-
_by the· dynamite of the tenth of a second, so that now, m the
tOrIal-and hterary-means the effects which the public today
midst of its far-flung ruins and debris, we calmly and adv~n­ seeks in the film.
mrously go traveling. With the close-up, space expands; with
. Every fundamentally new, pioneering creation of demands
slow motion; movement is extended. The enlargement of a snap-
WIll carry beyond its goal. Dadaism did so to the extent that it
shot does not simply render more precise what in any case was sacrificed the market values which are so characteristic of the
visible, though unclear: it reveals en~rely new structural for~a­ film i~ favor of h~gher ~mbitions-though of course it was not
tions of the subject. So, too, slow motion not only presents famIl- COnsClOUS of such mtentlons as here described. The Dadaists at-
iar qualities of movement b~t re~eals in them ent~ely unknown tached much less importance to the sales value of their work
ones "which, fu from looking like retarded rapid movements, than to its uselessness for contemplative immersion. The studied
give ~the effect of ~~larly gliding, floatin~, supernatural mo- degradation of their material was not the least of their means to
tions~"· Evidently a different nature opens Itself to the camera
achiev~ ~his uselessne~. Their poems are "word salad" containing
than opens to the naked. eye-if only because a~ unconsciously
ObSCe?Ities and eve~y m~aginable waste product of language. The
penetrated space is substituted for a space conscIously explored
same IS true of their pamtings, on which they mounted buttons
• Rudolf Amheim, loco cit., p. 138. and tickets. What they intended and achieved was a relentless
3J7
 lllumin4tions The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
destruction of the aura of their creations, which they branded as
reproductions with the very means of producti?n .. B~fore a, paint- xv
ing of Arp's or a poem by August Stramm It IS ImpossIble to
take time for contemplation and ev~luation as one ,would ~efore The mass is a matrix from which all traditional behavior to-
a canvas of Derain's or a poem by Rdke. In the dechne of middle- ward works ,of art iss~es today in a new form. Quantjty has been
clasS society, contemplation became a school for asocial behavior; transmuted mto qualIty. The ,greatly increased mass of partici-
it was countered by distraction as a variant of social con~uct.18 pants has produced a change 10 the mode of participation. The
Dadaistic. activities actually assured a rather vehement dIst~ac­ fact that the new mode of participation first appeared in a dis-
tion by making works of art the center of scandal. ?n
e reqUlre- reputable form m~~t not confuse t~e spectator. Yet some people
'lnent was foremost: to outrage the public. have launched splflted attacks agamst precisely this superficial
;. ,From an alluring appearance or persuasive structure of sound asp~ct. Among these, Duhamel has expressed himself in the most
the work of art of the Dadaists became an instrument of bal- rad!cal ma?ner. What he objects to most is the kind of partici-
'listics. It hit the spectator like a bullet, it happened to him, thus patlon whIch the movie elicits from the masses. Duhamel calls
"acquiring a tactile quality. It promoted a demand for the film, the movie "a pastime for helots, a diversion for uneducated
'the distracting element of which is also primarily tactile, being ~retched, worn-out creatures who are consumed by their wor~
_based on changes of place and focus which periodically assail the rles ... , a ~pect~cle which requires no concentration and pre-
,spectator. Let us comJ>:U'~ the screen. o? w~c~ a film unfolds supposes no mtelhgence ... , which kindles no light in the hean
With the canvas of a pamtmg. The pamtmg mVItes the spe~tator and awakens no hope other than the ridiculous one of someday
to "contemplation; before it the spectator can abandon hImself becomin!! a 'star' in Los Angeles." • Clearly, this is at bottom the
to his associations. Before the movie frame he cannot do so. No same ancient lament that the masses seek distraction whereas an
-_~ner has his eye grasped a scene than it is already changed. It demands concentration from the spectator. That is a common-
;clnnot be 'arrested. Duhamel, who detests the film and knows place. Th~ question remains whether it provides a platform for
,:nothing of its significance, though something of its ~trUcture, the analYSIS of the film. A closer look is needed here. Distraction
: <notes this circumstance as follows: "I can no longer think w~at and concentration form polar opposites which may be stated as
"I',want to think. My thoughts have been replaced by movmg follows: A man who concentrates before a work of art is ab-
-:'ii'riages.". The spectator's process of. association in view of these sorbed by. it. He ~nters into this work of an the way legend tells
images is indeed interrupted by therr constant, sud?en c~ange. of the Chmese pamter when he viewed his finished painting. In
This-' constitutes the shock effect of the film, which, like all contrast, the distracted mass absorbs the work of art. This is
1s most obvious with regard to buildings. Architecture has always
;shocks, should be cushioned by heightened presence of mind.
By means of its technical structure, the film has tak.en the phy~- rep~ese?ted the prototype of a work of art the reception of
ical shock effect out of the wrappers in which DadalSID had, as It whIch IS consummated by a collectivity in a state of distraction.
were, kept it inside the moral shock effect.20 The laws of its reception are most instructive.
Buildings have been man's companions since primeval times.
.'~... Georges DulWnel,' Seines de I/J we future, Paris, 1930 , p. 52·
't''', _
M.any art forms have developed and perished. Tragedy begins
·,r-·" .' ~Ith the Greeks, is extinguished with them, and after centuries
Its "rules" only are revived. The epic poem, which had its origin
• Duhamel, op. cit., p. 58.

239
 The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
in the youth of nations, expires in Europe at the end of the Ren- this position. requires no attention. The public IS
. an exammer
. but
aissance. Panel painting is a creation of the Middle Ages, and an absent-mmded one. '
, nothing guarantees its uninterrupted existence. But the human
need for shelter is lasting. Architecture has never been idle. Its
EPILOGUE
history is more ancient than that of any other art, and its claim
to being a living force has significance in every attempt to com- ~he growin.g proletarianization of modern man and the in-
F crea~mg formation of masses are two aspects of the same process
:"prehend the relationship of the masses to art. Buildings are ap-
i propriated in a twofold manner: by use and by perception-or aSClsm .attempts to orgamze . the new y created I '
proletarian
,~ nther, by touch and sight. Such appropriation ca,nnot be under- masses without
. . . affecting the property structure w h'IC h t he masses
~ stood in terms of the attentive concentration of a tourist before stnve t? el~mmate. Fascism sees its salvation in giving these masses
" a famous building. On the tactile side there is no counterpart to not theIr nght, ~ut instead a chance to express themselves.21 The
~:.contemplation on the optical side. Tactile appropriation is accom- . have a nght to change property reIatlOns;
masses . Fascism seeks
/'plished not'so much by attention as by habit. As regards architec- ~o gIVe them an ~xpr~ssion while preserving pro e . The 10 _
.: tore, habit determines to a large extent even optical reception. Ic~1 ~esult of FaSCIsm IS the introduction of aesth~ti:rinto poli~­
, The latter, too, occurs much less through rapt attention than by c~. hfe. The violation of the masses, whom Fascism, with its
noticing the object in incidental fashion. This mode of appro- Fu.hrer cult, forces to their knees, has its counterpart in the vio-
~'priation, developed with reference to architecture, in certain l~tIonl of an apparatus which is pressed into the production of
. circumst2nces acquires canonical value. For the tasks which face ntua values .
., the' human apparatus of perception at the turning points of his- All efforts to render politics aesthetic culminate in one thing .
" >.tory cannot be solved by optical means, that is, by contempI a- war. War and war only can set a goal for mass movements on th~
.' . 'tion, alone. They are mastered gradually by habit, under the lar~es.t scale while respecting the traditional pro e tern
.- guidance of tactile appropriation. ThiS IS the political formula for the situation. The ~e:n:r;: icai
~e distracted person, too, can form habits. More, the ability for~~la may be stated as follows: Only war makes it ossibfe to
to master certain tasks in a state of distraction proves that their mobIlIze all of today'S technical resources while main~ining the
solution has become a matter of habit. Distraction as provided by pr.openy system. It goes without saying that the Fascist apothe-
art presents a covert control of the extent to which new tasks OSIS ~f ~ar d?es not employ such arguments. Still, Marinetti
have becOme soluble by apperception. Since, moreover, individ- says 10 his mamfesto on the Ethiopian colonial war: "For twenty-
uals are tempted to avoid such tasks, art will tackle the most dif- seven yea~ we ~uturists have rebelled against the branding of
war as antiaesthetlc...• Accordingly we state' W' b
ficult and most important ones where it is able to mobilize the tif l b ' . • • . ar 15 eau-
masses. Today it does so in the film. Reception in a state of dis- u . ecause It establishes man's dominion over the b' ed
machmery b f su Jugat
traction, which is increasing noticeably in all fields of art and is h y means 0 gas masks,. terrifying megaphones, flame
symptomatic of profound changes in apperception, finds in the ~ rowers, and s£?all.tanks. War is beautiful because it initiates the
reamt-of
. metalizatlon
. h of the human body• War 15' b eaun'fuI be-
film its true means of exercise. The film with its shock effect
cause. It ennc es a ~owerin~ meadow with the fiery orchids of
meets this mode of reception halfway. The film makes the cult
value recede into the background not only by putting the public
~achme guns. War IS beautiful because it combines the gunfire
t e cannonades,
. . the cease-fire' the ,scentse and th stench 0 f'
in the position of the critic, but also by the fact that at the movies f
putre actIon mto a symphony. War is beautl'ful b ecause It . creates
 IUuminAtions
; new architecture, like that of the big tanks, the geometrical for-
-: mation flights, the smoke spirals from burning villages, and many 'Notes
others.... Poets and artists of Futurism! ... remember these
principles of an aesthetics of war so that your struggle for a new I. Of course, the history of a work of art encom
literature and a new graphic art ... may be illumined by them!" this, The history of the "M L'" f ' passes more than
kind and number of its co ,ona ~sa" : mstance, encompasses the
,,' This manifesto has the virtue of clarity. Its formulations de- tories. pIes rna e 10 e 17th, 18th, and 19th cen-
serve to be accepted by dialecticians. To the latter, the aesthetics
of today's war appears as follows: If the natural utilization of 1, Precisely because authentici ' ,
sive penetration of certal'n ( hty ,IS lnot reproducIble, the inten-
productive forces is impeded by the property system, the in- ,
was mstrumental in d'ff "
mec amca) processes f
, 0 repro uctton
d'
crease in technical devices, in speed, and in the sources of energy velop such differentiat~o~:e:t1atmg, and gradmg a~thenticity. To de-
will press for an unnatural utilization, and this is found in war. works of art 1 0 ' ,as an Important functton of the trade in
The, destructiveness of war furnishes proof that society has not struck at the' r e mventlon ~f the woodcut may be said to have
been mature 'enough to incorporate technology as its organ, that tlowerin Toot of the quah~ of authenticity even before its late
, technology has not been sufficiently developed to cope with the the MaLnn: be ~~re, at the tIme o,f its origin a medieval picture of
," elemental forces of society. The horrible features of imperial- "authentic" onlcoud ,not Yh et be sal~ to be "authentic," It became
trY I y. urmg t e succeedmg centuries and perhaps most
, istic: .warfare are attributable' to the discrepancy between the s I 109 Y so durmg the last one.
. tremendous means of production and their inadequate utilization 3· The poorest provincial staging of Faust is su .
in the process of production-in other words, to unemployment co~~etes
film inB tfhat, ideally, it with the firstperf~:~~c:o a~ ~:
and the)ack of markets. Imperialistic war is a rebellion of tech- mar. e ore the screen It IS
contents whi h 'h unp,ro fi ta ble to remember traditional
nology which collects, in the form of "human material," the tha G •c ~Ig t come to mmd before the stage-for instance
claims- to which society has denied its natural material. Instead t hoel~khe s frIend Johann Heinrich Merck is hidden in Mephtsto''
.of' drtining rivers, society directs a human stream into a bed of and tel e. '
"' trenches; instead of dropping seeds from airplanes, it drops in- l' To satisfy the human interest of the masses rna
.;; thingh~ve
n
: cendiary bombs over cities; and through gas warfare the aura is one s social function removed from the fidd of ;isir::a
guarantees that a portraitist of today when painti a f. 0
. abolished in a new way.
,•.. : f;: "Fiat Iln-pereat mundus," says Fascism, and, as Marinetti ad-
g~on at ~e breakfast table in the mid~ of his famil~ de ~mo~sur-
~, -., mit$, expects war to supply the artistic gratification of a sense cla~!:n~:on. more ,precisely than a painter of the 17clt c~~=ry :.:
po y hIS medIcal doctors as representing this f' lik
....~ perception that has been changed by technology. This is evi- Rembrandt in his "Anatomy Lesson." proessIOn, e
:.~: dently the consummation of "flirt pour faTt." Mankind, which

~!;o~~:;:;::7i.~or~p~2:;::5!::¥~f:;
, in'Homer's time was an object of contemplation for the Olym-
pian"gods, now is one for itself. Its self-alienation has reached
such.' a .degree that it can experience its own destruction as an d:!e:c:,pt10~. Distance is the opposite of closeness. The essentiall
aesthetic pleasure of the first order. This is the situation of poli- d d ~ect IS the unapproachable one. Unapproachability is :
, tics which :Fascism is rendering aesthetic. Communism responds ,,~~ a mahJor quality of the cult image. True to its nature it rema~
by politicizing art. 'Istant,
f owever
" close it may be"
. The closeness W h'ICh' one may
'. g am, r~m, Its subject matter does not impair the distance whi h .
retarns In Its appearance. c It
 The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
lllumi7UItions
• within the limits of Idealism. We quote from his Philosophy of His-
6 To the extent to which the cult value of the painting is secu-
~ the ideas of its fundamental uniqueness lose distinctness. In tory:
the imagination of the beholder the uniqueness of the phenomena "Images were known of old. Piety at an early time required them
which hold sway in the cult image is more and more dIsplaced by fo~ worship, but. it could do without beautiful images. These
the empirical uniqueness of the creator or of his creative a~~ievement. might even be dISturbing. In every beautiful painting there is
_To be sure, never completely SO; the concept of authentlclty ~lways also something nonspiritual, merely external, but its spirit speaks
transcends mere genuineness. (This is particularly ~p~arent tn the to man through its beauty. Worshipping, conversely, is con-
x collector who always retains some traces of the fetIShIst and who, cerned with the work as an object, for it is but a spiridess stupor
'by owning the work of art, shares in its ritual power.) Neve~thel~, of the soul. •.. Fine art has arisen ••• in the church .•• , al-
the function of the concept of authenticity remains deterT?l?ate .10 . th~ugh it has alr~ady gone beyond its principle as art."
the evaluation of art; with the secularization of aft, authentlClty dIS- L1kewlse, the followtng passage from The Philosophy of Fine Art
places the cult value of the work. . . indicates that Hegel sensed a problem here.
7. In the case of films, mechanical re.p~oduction IS n~t, ~s ~1th "We are beyond the stage of reverence for works of art as di-
• literature and painting, an external condltlon for mass .dlStnbutlon. vine and objects deserving our worship. The impression they
. Mechanical reproduction is ,inherent in ~e ~ery techntqu~ of film produce is one of a more reflective kind, and the emotions they
~production. This technique riot only permIts tn th~ ~ost .dlrect way arouse require a higher test. .••"-G. W. F. Hegel, The Philos-
but virtually causes mass distribution. It enforces ~IS~I~utlon because ophy of Fine Art, trans., with notes, by F. P. B. Osmaston, Vol.
the production of a film is so expensive that an tndlvldual who, for I, p. 11, London, 1920.

inst2nce, might afford to buy a painting no longer can afford to buy The transition from the first kind of artistic reception to the sec-
a film. In 191 7 it was calculated that a .majo~ ~lm, in .order to pay ond characterizes the history of artistic reception in general. Apart
its way, had to reach an audience of ntn~ milh~n..WI~h the sound from that, a ~ertain oscillation between these two polar modes of re-
film, to be sure, a setback in its internatlonal dlStn~utlon o~cur~ed ception can be demonstrated for each work of art. Take the Sistine
,at first: audiences became limited by language barners. Th~s com- Madonna. Since Hubert Grimme's research it has been known that
cided with the Fascist emphasis on national interests. It 1S .more the Madonna originally was painted for the purpose of exhibition.
. important to focus on this connection with Fas~i~ than on t~IS set- Grimme's research was inspired by the question: What is the pur-
~ back, which was soon minimized by synchrontzatlon.. The Simulta- pose of the molding in the foreground of the painting which the
neity of both phenomena is attributable to the depression. The. sa~e two cupids lean upon? How, Grimme asked further, did Raphael
,:1 disturbances which, on a larger scale, led to an attempt to matntatn come to furnish the sky with two draperies? Research proved that
, the existing property strUcture by sheer force led the endange~ed the Madonna had been commissioned for the public lying-in-state of
; film capital to speed up the development of the sound film. ~he tn- Pope Sixtus. The Popes lay in state in a certain side chapel of St.
, troduction of the sound film brought about a temporary rehef, not Peter's. On that occasion Raphael's picture had been fastened in a
only because it again brought the masses int~ the. theaters ~ut also nichelike background of the chapel, supported by the coffin. In this
" because it merged new capital from the electrical. tndustry With that picture Raphael portrays the Madonna approaching the papal coffin
.' of the film industry. Thus, viewed from the outs~de., th~ sound film in clouds from the background of the niche, which was demarcated
promoted national interests, but seen from the ln5ld~ It helped to by green drapes. At the obsequies of Sixtus a pre-eminent exhibition
internationalize film production even more than prevIOUsly. . value of Raphael's picture was taken advantage of. Some time later
;. 8. This polarity cannot come into its own in the ~esthe~cs of it was placed on the high altar in the church of the Black Friars at
idealism. Its idea of beauty comprises these polar OppOSites. W1thout Piacenza. The reason for this exile is to be found in the Roman rites
differentiating between them and consequendy excludes therr po~ar­ which forbid the use of paintings exhibited at obsequies as cult ob-
ity. Yet in Hegel this polarity announces itself as clearly as poSSible jects on the high altar. This regulation devalued Raphael's picture to
 IIlumin4tions The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
some degree. In order to obtain an adequate price nevertheless, the Instead of choosing at ran~om from a great wealth of examples. let
Papal See resolved to add to the bargain the tacit toleration of the us c~ncent~ate on a particularly convincing one. A clock that is
pic:ture above the high altar. To avoid attention the picture was workIng, wrIl ~lways b,e a disturbance on the stage. There it cannot
given to the monks of the far-off provincial town. be permitted Its function of measuring time. Even in a naturalistic
'cj.~Bertolt Brecht, on a different level, engaged in analogous re- p!ay. astronomical time would clash with theatrical time. Under these
flectiOns: "If the concept of 'work of art' can no longer be applied clrcUl~stances i,t is highly revealing that the film can. whenever ap-
, to ,the thing that emerges pnce the work is transformed into a com- propnate, use time as measured by a clock. From this more than from
, modity, we have to eliminate this concept with cautious care but n~any other touches it may clearly be recognized that under' certain
, without fear. lest we liquidate the function of the very thing as well. clrcU~stances each an~ ~very prop in a film may assume important
, For it has to go through this phase without mental reservation, and funcuons. From here It IS but one step to Pudovkin's statement that
, not as noncommittal deviation from the straight path; rather, what "t~e playing ~f an actor which is connected with an object and is
, happens here with the work of art will change it fundamentally and buil~ around It : •• is always one of the strongest methods of cine-
, 'ense its past 'to such an extent that should the old concept be taken matl~ construction." (W. Pudovkin, FiJmregie und Filmmanusk1'ipt,
up agaUi-and'it will, why not?-it will no longer stir any memory Berl~n. 1928, p. 126.) The film is the fint art form capable of demon-
of the thing it once designated." ._ stratmg how matter plays tricks on man. Hence, films can be an ex-
'.- IO~ ,"The film ••• provides-or could provide-useful insight into cellent means of materialistic representation.
the details of human actions••• ' '. Character is never used as a source 12. ~he change no~ed here in the method of exhibition caused by
of motivation; the inner life of the persons never supplies the prin- m~~haDlcal reproduc~lon applies, to politics as well. The present
. dpal cause of the plot and seldom is its main result." (Be~olt c,nslS of, the bourgeOIs democracIes comprises a crisis of the condi-
Brecht,' Versuche, "Der Dreigroschenprozess," p. 268.) The expansion tIO~S whlc,h ,determine the public presentation of the rulers. Democ-
of the field of the testable which mechanical equipment brings about racies exhlbl~ a member of government direcdy and personally be-
for the actor corresponds to the extraordinary expansion of the field ~ore th~ nauon's represe~tatives. Parliament is his public. Since the
of;the .test2ble brought about for the individual through economic Innovations of camera an~ recording equipment make it possible for
conditiOns. Thus, vocational aptitude tests become constandy more the orator to become audible and visible to an unlimited number of
important. What matten in these tests are segmental performances person~. the p~esentation of the man of politics before camera and
'of the individual. The film shot and the vocational aptitude test are recordmg eqUipment becomes paramount. Parliaments, as much as
aken<before a committee of experts. The camera director in ~he theaters, ar~ deserted. Radio and film not only affect the function of
stUdiO' Occupies a place identical with that of the examiner dunng the profeSSIOnal actor but likewise the function of those who also
aptit,ude, tests. exhibit themselves before this mechanical equipment, those who gov-
,il~. RUdoIf,Amheim, Film als Kunst, Berlin, 1932, pp. 176 f. In ern. Though their tasks may be different, the change affects equally
this conteXt certain seemingly unimportant details in which the film the actor and the ~ler. The trend is toward establishing controllable
direCtor deviates from stage practices gain in interest. Such is the and transferrable skills under certain social conditions. This results in
attempt to let the actor play without make-up. as made among othen a new selection, a selection before the equipment from which the
by Dreyer in his Jeanne d' ATc. Dreyer spent months seeking the star and the dictator emerge victorious.
fOro/ acton who constitute the Inquisiton' tribunal. The search for 13· The privileged character\ of the respective techniques is lost.
these-~actOrs .resembled that for stage properties that are hard to Aldous Huxley writes:
come' by•. Dreyer made every effort to avoid resemblances of age, "Advance~ in technology h~'ve led ... to vulgarity.••• Process
bUild; and physiognomy. If the actor thus becomes a stage property. r~productlon and the rotary press have made possible the indefi-
this latter. on the other hand. frequendy functions as actor. At least nite mul~iplicati~n of writin and pictures. Universal education
it is Dot unusual for the film to assign a role to the stage property. and relatively high wages ha e created an enormous public who
347
 lllumhultiom
The IVork of Art in the Age of Mechamcal Reproduction
know how to read and can afford to buy reading and pictorial
I refer to the a~robatic tricks of larynx surgery which have to be per-
I1l2tter. A great industry has been called into existence in order to
formed followmg the reversed picture in the laryngoscope. I might
supply these commodities. Now, artistic talent is a very rare. phe-
alsu speak of ear surgery which suggests the precision work of
nomenon; whence it follows ••• that, at every epoch and m all
'. countries. most art has been bad. But the proportion of trash in watc.hmakers. What range of the most subtle muscular acrobatics is
.,.-the total artistic output is greater now than at any other period. reqUired from the ma.n who wants to repair or save the human body!
. That it must be so is a matter of simple arithmetic. The popula- ~Ve . have only to thmk of the couching of a cataract where there
tion of Western Europe has a little more than doubled during the IS ~Irtually ~ debate of steel with nearly fluid tissue, or of the
last century. But the amount of reading-and seein,$-matter has major abdommal operations (laparotomy)."-Luc Durtain, op. cit.
increased, I should imagine, at least twenty and possibly fifty or 15· !his mode of observation may seem crude, but as the great
even a hundred times. If there were n men of talent in a popula- t?eoretlclan Leonardo has shown, crude modes of observation may at
tion of x millio~ there will presumably be 1n men of talent nmes be usefully adduced. Leonardo compares painting and music
among 2X millions. The situation may be summed up thus. For as follows: "Painting is superior to music because unlike unfortu-
every page of print and pictures published a century ago, twenty nat~ m~sic, it does not have to die as SOon as it is 'born.••• Music
or perhaps even a hundred pages are published today. But for wh~ch IS consumed in the very act of its birth is inferior to painting
every man of talent then living, there are now only two men of whIch the use of varnish has rendered eternal." (Trattato I, 19.)
talent. It may be of course that, thanks to universal educati?n,
. 16. Re~aissance painting offers a revealing analogy to this situa-
many potential talents which in the past would have been snll-
non. The mcomparable development of this art and its significance
, born are now enabled to realize themselves. Let us assume, then,
rested not least on the integration of a number of new sciences or at
that there are now three or even four men of talent to every one
least of new scientific data. Renaissance painting made use of an~tomy
of earlier times. It still remains true to say that the consumption
of reading-and seeing-matter has far outstripped the natu~al and , persp~ctive:, of mathematics, meteorology, and chromatology.
production of gifted writers and draughtsmen. It is the sa~e With V a~ery writes: What could be further from us than the strange
hearing-matter. Prosperity, the gramophone and the radiO have c1a~m of a Leonardo to whom painting was a supreme goal and the
created an audience of hearers who consume an amount of hear- ul~m.ate demonstration of knowledge? Leonardo was convinced that
ing-l1l2tter that has increased out of all proportion to the increase pamtlng demanded universal knowledge, and he did not even shrink
of population and the consequent natural increase of talented mu- from a theoreti~a~ analys~ which to ~s is stunning because of its very
sicians. It follows from all this that in all the arts the output of depth and preCISIon.••• -Paul Valery, Pieces sur l'art "Autour de
Corot," p ' p. 19 1 •
ans, ,
. trash is both absolutely and relatively greater than it was in the
. past; and that it must remain greater for just so long as the world 17· "The work of art," says Andre Breton, "is valuable only in so
. continues to consume the present inordinate quantities of read- far as it is vibrated by the reflexes of the future." Indeed, every de-
. ing-matter, seeing-matter, and hearing-matter."-Aldous Huxley, veloped art form intersects three lines of development. Technology
.~Beyond tbe Merique Bay. A Travelln's Journal, London, 1949, works toward a certain form of art. Before the advent of the film
~. 'pp. 274 ff. First published in 193+ there were photo booklets with pictures which flitted by the on-
"':'~'.This mode of observation is obviously not progressive. looker. upon pressure of the thumb, thus pOrtraying a boxing bout or
":"~+ The 'boldness of the cameraman is indeed comparable to that a . tennIS match. Then there were the slot machines in bazaars; their
of the .Surgeon. Luc Durtain lists among specific technical slei~hts .of picture sequences were produced by the turning of a crank.
, haild those "which are required in surgery in the case of certain dif- Secondly, the traditional art forms in certain phases of their de-
ficult operations. I choose as an example a case from oto-rhino- velopment strenuously work toward effects which later are effort-
laryngology; ••• the so-called endonasal perspective procedure; or lessly attained by the new ones. Before the rise of the movie the
 Illumhultions The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

:' Dadaists' performances ttied to create an audience reaction which the. premonition that this apparatus will be structurally based on
Otaplin later evoked in a more natural way. . OptiCS plays a dominant parti in Futurism, it is the premonition of
" Thirdly, unspectacular social changes often promote a change I.n the effects of this apparatus which are brought out by the rapid se-
receptivity which will benefit the new art form. Before t~e mO~le quence of the film strip.
had begun to create its public, pictures that were no longer Immobile 11. One technical feature is significant here, especially with regard
captivated an assembled audience in the so-called Ka;serpanorama. to new.sreels, the propagandist importance of which can hardly be
Here the public assembled before a screen into which stereoscopes over~snmated. Mass reproduction is aided especially by the repro-
were mounted, one to each beholder. By a mechanical process indi- ducnon of masses. In big parades and monster rallies, in sports events.
vidual pictures appeared briefly before the stereoscopes, then made and in war, all of which nowadays are captured by camera and sound
way for others. Edison still had to use similar devic~ in presenting recording, the masses are brought face to face with themselves. This
the first movie strip before the film screen and projection were process, ~hose significance need not be stressed, is intimately con-
Jmown. This strip was presented to a small public which stared into nected with the development of the techniques of reproduction and
the apparatus in which the succession of pictures was reeling off. In- photography. Mass movements are usually discerned more clearly by
cidentally, the institution of the Ka;serpanorama shows very clearly a ~amera than by the naked eye. A bird's-eye view best captures gath-
• dialectic of the development. Shortly before the movie turned the enngs of hundreds of thousands. And even though such a view may
reception of pictures into a collective one, the individual viewing of be a~ accessible to the human eye as it is to the camera, the image
pictUres in these swifdy outmoded establishments came intO play once received by the eye cannot be enlarged the way a negative is en-
more with an intensity comparable to that of the ancient priest be- larged. This means that mass movements, including war, constitute a
holding the statue of a divinity in the cella. form of human behavior which particularly favors mechanical equip-
'.,IS.,The theological archetype of this contemplation is the aware- ment.
ness of being alone with one's God. Such awareness, in the heyday
'. . of the bourgeoisie, went to sttengthen the freedom to shake off cler-
'ical tutelage. During the decline of the bourgeoisie this awareness had
to Cake into account the hidden tendency to withdraw from public
affain those forces which the individual draws upon in his commun-
ion with God.
, 19. The film is the art form that is in keeping with the increased
threat to his life which modem man has to face. Man's need to ex-
'pose himself to shock effects is his adjustment to the dangers threat-
~ ening him. The film corresponds to profound changes in the apper-
ceptive apparatus-changes that are experienced on an individual
, scale by'the man in the street in big-city traffic, on a historical scale
by;every present-day citizen.
:. ~ : "2o•. As for Dadaism, insights important for Cubism and Futurism
are ,to be gained from the movie. Both appear as deficient attempts
of art to accommodate the pervasion of reality by the apparatus. In
Contrast to the film, these schools did not try to use the apparatus as
'such for the artistic presentation of reality, but aimed at some sort
of alloy in the joint presentation of reality and apparatus. In Cubism,

Z1° ZJ'