Reproduction

DEFINITION

The act of reproducing; copying; creating a facsimile. The product of the act of reproducing, especially when it is significantly faithful in its resemblance to the form and elements of the original.A quotation about reproduction: "For the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependance upon ritual. To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. But the instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed. Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practise ? politics." Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), German critic. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," 1936, in Illuminations, reprinted in 1969. Related resources: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, the 1936 essay by Walter Benjamin. A short video by Keith Sanborn, The Artwork in the Age of its Mechanical Reproducibility by Walter Benjamin as told to Keith Sanborn, 1996. An attempt to problematize ownership and authorship in the age of digital reproduction. Inspired by the Walter Benjamin essay of the same name and the activities of the Situationists. Also see analogy, appropriation, cast, copyright, counterfeit, droit moral, ersatz, fake, forgery, full-scale, kitsch, likeness, mirror, moir?, originality, paint-by-number, poster, print, replica, representation, simile, simulacrum, and simulation.