![]() ![]() The concept of authenticity is strongly linked to that of aura, and in Benjamin’s text the terms are used almost interchangeably. (2018) speak about how ACCORD, a Cultural Heritage project co-designed and co-produced with members of the community, put the participants in the condition to experience heritage sites in a different light and allowed them to gain knowledge about the site itself or the community’s relationship with it. ![]() They invite museums and institutions, two of the gatekeepers when it comes to knowledge, to share their reproductions and to involve the public in the recontextualization of the past. For example, in their essay, Sarah Younan and Cathy Treadaway (2015) argue that the democratization of access to 3D artifacts and the possibility to interact with them can pave the way for novel, meaningful narratives about the past that may have not found a place in the authorized heritage discourse. In a similar way, 3D reproductions of artifacts can draw the public towards cultural heritage. This process, which the loss of aura is a prerequisite for, shakes the power structure implied by the authentic work and its tradition, allowing the general public (for Benjamin, ‘the masses’) to receive it, interpret it, question it, enjoy it. 25) with new chances of exhibiting artworks to a wider audience, the value of the artwork shifts to the polar opposite of the cult value, now with emphasis on its ‘exhibition value’. Instead of being founded on ritual, it is based on a different practice: politics’ (p. However, ‘as soon as the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applied to artistic production’ (that is, when aura dissipates), ‘the whole social function of art is revolutionized. Benjamin argues that artworks were initially based in the ritual, whether magical, religious or secular, and on their unapproachability (for everyone except the few privileged) was founded their value, a ‘cult value’. In turn, the reproduction of, in particular, works of art results in a shift in the function of art itself. 21) replicas uproot the authentic object from its original place in tradition and bring it closer to us, thus dispelling aura. That happens when copies of auratic objects are (technologically) reproduced, since ‘n even the most perfect reproduction, one thing is lacking: the here and now of the work of art’ (p. When that distance is reduced, when the unique existence in the here and now becomes a ‘mass existence’ (p. The object’s location in a certain tradition, its unique history and its authority evoke the feeling of aura, ‘the unique apparition of a distance’ (p. The ideas of aura and authenticity of 3D reproductions will be briefly discussed and related to my own process of creating two visualizations in collaboration with the Mining Museum of Heerlen, The Netherlands.Īuratic objects derive their aura from their ‘unique existence in a particular place’, their ‘here and now’ (Benjamin, 1935, p. Nevertheless, digital reproductions are widely considered to be of great value to knowledge, as a growing number of institutions and researchers are producing digital replicas allowing members of the public to visualize them on the internet. In this regard, 3D models may be considered inauthentic, but many contrasting voices promote different approaches to authenticity. Digital objects lack materiality and are seemingly unaffected by the passing of time additionally, as copies of original objects, digital counterparts lack aura in the Benjaminian sense (1935), having neither a history nor a place in time and space. ![]() ![]() In particular, a rich debate concerns the authenticity of tridimensional models in comparison to the original artifact they represent. Digital replicas provide many advantages, facilitating access and visibility to a wider audience being the main one, but their production also presents many challenges. Cultural heritage institutions and practitioners have embraced 3d representations as a way of digitizing artifacts. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |