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AUTHENTICITY
Benjamin defines authenticity as the,
“Here and now of the original artwork.”
(Critical Vision, p.232)
His use of “here” and “now” emphasizes his concern for the space and the time where and when the original artwork can be positioned.
In regards to time, he thinks that any authentic artwork has a “quintessence transmissible from its origin, ranging from the physical duration to the historical testimony relating to it.”
About the space, he argues that “the unique value of the authentic work of art always has its basis in ritual.” He offers an example of the statue of Venus serving for the ritualistic purposes. He states that this artwork served as “an object of worship” or a “sinister idol” in different ages. The example demonstrates that “the ritual,” which Benjamin mentions, is limited into the religious rituals.
Benjamin’s arguments are too outdated to comment on contemporary Internet art in many aspects.
Firstly, the scope of art that Benjamin discussed is only limited to some traditional materialized forms of art, such as painting and sculpture. In Internet art, the physical duration and the historical testimony are difficult to be detected because of the immateriality of digital information.
Secondly, the sacralization and ritualization are not only confined into the religions in the modernized society. As Foucault argues, “the social space has been moving towards de-sacralization since the time of Galileo. ” In order to satisfy the desire for the sacred, “contemporary society seeks to defines the spaces separated from mundane, everyday living.”
To explore the authenticity of digital artworks, Betancourt’s “aura of information” can be used.
Firstly, he argues that “the digital objects are basically same” because their components always are binary codes, no matter what format the digital object is encapsulated into.This immateriality of binary codes causes that the historical testimony cannot be located in the components of digital artworks.
Secondly, he points out that “the digital object exists as the symbolic content, which becomes a physically accessible form only when presented through a technological intermediary.” Then, he says that,
“The authenticity is a conclusion based upon a second order of interpretation, derived from a decision about the symbolic content of an object.”
(Aura of the Digital)
His statement implies that the authenticity of digital artworks requires viewers to use their own knowledge to contextualize the symbolic contents to their created time.
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Betancourt's
Article
However, I don’t think we can contextualize the symbolic contents of Internet artworks into their exact time.
During my research of Miao Ying’s Datsfashion, I find that the popular videos and advertising posters that she appropriated were produced from different times.
The video in the center, Shamate vs. Xijianchui, is a Bilibili trendy video produced in 2013.
The fashion poster with the girl wearing a pair of sunglasses is from the advertisements of Prada stylish sunglasses launched into the market in late 2014.
The variety and inconsistency in the created time of the appropriated materials make us hard to contextualize the artwork into its exact birth date.
However, Betancourt’s argument leaves us the doubt whether there is any “imprint of the past” that we can use to analyze the duration of immaterial Internet artwork. Without any profound knowledge of the website infrastructure and its architectural model, I cannot offer any reasonable answer here.
Another update of Benjamin’s aura is Hazan’s the virtual aura. In her essay, she discovers that some artworks are currently exhibited in the technology-based environment, such as the Internet archives or online museums. She tries to redefine that “the aura of the art object is brought into being through the technological process itself. ”
She also intends to reinstate the sacredness and ritualism in the virtual exhibition space. She says that,
“The enchanting technological processes of networked art, firmly embedded in circulatory, social systems, propel sacred spaces from remote locations across vast distances into our foreground at the blink of an eye.”
(Virtual Aura)
Her statements imply that the digital circulation of artworks makes the virtual exhibition space an enchanted space. We also can “maintain critical distance from these experiences (viewing the artworks) and appreciate the craftsmanship of the new medium (Internet)” in the online exhibitions.
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Virtual Aura
From my observation of the exhibition environment of Miao Ying’s arts, the virtual aura actually exists. Miao Ying’s artworks are mostly displayed in her own Newhive blog. The main page of her blog leaves us an impression, different from the normal blogs, that it doesn't offer so much text to viewers. Most main pages of blogs are more like the contents of a book, giving us the title and the abstract of each article. The Newhive blog just leaves the viewers’ attention centralized on the thumbnail pictures of the artworks. When the mouse cursor touches on these pictures, the edge of them will be highlighted. This design attracts viewers to click on a picture to watch the artwork closely.
Through the comparison between the Newhive blog and the normal blogs, Newhive is more concerned about giving viewers the experience like wandering in a museum, letting us find some interesting works, and then, focusing on it. Hazan argues,
“the museum is already an exceptional space, set aside by society for extraordinary activity. ”
(Virtual Aura)
The Newhive blog tries to distinguish its blog space from the mundane Internet. It does not show what happens in the society, but the art itself.
Therefore, the online art exhibition platforms virtually restores the environment of museum on its basis of technological infrastructure. The sacred aura is re-ritualized online within them.
OR?
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