scholarly journals Formation of Space, Experience and Thought: A Critical Study of Ambedkar’s Biopic Bhim Garjana

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudhir Mehra ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Cultural Discourse ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
National Discourse ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Visual Texts ◽  
Mechanical Reproduction ◽  
Ideological Discourse ◽  
Visual Text ◽  
Definition Of

In his 1936 essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, Walter Benjamin establishes that it is the ‘aestheticization of politics’ or ‘politicization of art’ which streamlines the cultural discourse of a nation at a given moment. The present paper attempts to critically analyze the ‘politics of visuality’ vis-à-vis ‘visuality of politics’ as an elemental framework in the making of Indian national discourse. To understand or rationalize this elemental framework, the paper postulates its hypothesis, that the politicization of art is a valid inquiry into how a certain ideological discourse is pre-selected and pre-programmed with a certain grid of features and structures of perception. It is this ideological discourse that needs to be exposed through a visual text namely, Vijay Pawar’s Bhim Garjana. This visual text broadly represents what Kancha Illaiah terms the Ambedkarite phase of Dalit history spanning over two decades – 1936-1956[i]. Bhim Garjana is an aesthetic artifact directed by a Dalit himself – an ‘insider’s’[ii] document on Ambedkar’s life and philosophy. There have so far been three films on Ambedkar including Bhim Garjana, one directed by Jabbar Patel titled Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (2000) and second by Anand Patwardha titled Jai Bhim Comrade (2011). All the visual texts though do not follow the definition of biopic strictly, but more or less, the paper places them in the category of biopics. Each text focuses on the life and struggle, both in historical and ideological terms, of Ambedkar.

scholarly journals CRITICAL STUDY OF IRANIAN MOVIE »NASSEREDIN SHAH, ACTOR OF CINEMA «ON THE BASIS OF THEORIES OF THE POSTMODERN NOVELS

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirzad Tayefi ◽  
Mohammad Hossein Ramezani Fookulaee
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Postmodern Literature ◽  
Visual Texts ◽  
French School ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Visual Text ◽  
The Relationship

Contrary to the French school of comparative literature, according to which it is merely possible to compare the two written texts in terms of conditions, in the American approach, the adaptation of literary texts to various arts, including cinema, is possible, which leads to a better understanding of literature. Since novels and films have many similarities, they are in many respects similar to each other, and two genres are considered analogous.These commons provide a good ground for discussing a movie from the perspective of a new literary theory and critique, and allow us to use the concepts and terminology we normally know as a tool for discussing the novel to critically explore the structure and art and the themes of the film. On the other hand, in recent years, the term "postmodernism" has been widely criticized about the novel in our country, and many new fiction writers also have a fascination with postmodern style fiction. Therefore, in this research, first, reviewing the views of some of the most important postmodern literature scholars, nineteen techniques used in postmodern novels are explored, and their qualitative method of applying them to Naser al-Dinshah film actor have been investigated.The results of the study show the relationship between literature and cinema (as a visual text) and the ability to compare the two written and visual texts; as many techniques used in the writing of postmodern novels are also with a high frequency have been used in the studied film

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Production

2009 ◽  
pp. 2325-2336
Author(s):  
Thomas B. Cavanaugh
Keyword(s):  
General Population ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Mechanical Reproduction ◽  
Artistic Collaboration ◽  
Electronic Distribution ◽  
Low Threshold

When Walter Benjamin wrote his famous essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, he shone a light on the cultural changes inherent in technology’s ability to infinitely reproduce and distribute art. One of the important consequences of this development was the democratization of art’s availability, allowing the general population to experience artwork that they would otherwise be unable to access. Now technology has advanced to a point where not only is art’s reproduction available to anyone who wants it, its very production is now accessible to almost everyone, even if the prospective artist is utterly devoid of training, expertise, or even talent. With software-based artistic assistance and low-threshold electronic distribution mechanisms, we have achieved the promise of Benjamin’s blurred distinction between artist and audience. As a result, the process by which art is produced has now been democratized, resulting in legitimate questions regarding quality, taste, and the legitimacy of authorship in a human-technological artistic collaboration.

MacSong: Karaoke and the Academy

Prospects ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 627-638
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Gray
Keyword(s):  
Original Work ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
The Other ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Mechanical Reproduction ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Press ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Movie Star

When Walter Benjamin wrote this sentence in the 1930s, he had in mind both the new directions of the press, which was opening more and more spaces in which its readers could write, and the new films and newsreels, where “any man today can lay claim to being filmed” (“Work of Art,” 233) and where, rather than actors, “people … portray themselves” (234; emphasis Benjamin's). Benjamin's attitude toward this collapse of the distinction between author and public was ambivalent. Phrases such as “the phony spell of a commodity” (233), to describe the cult of the movie star, suggest his nostalgia for a time when the aura of the “original” work of art had not yet begun to decay. On the other hand, his idea that “mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual” (226) pointed enthusiastically to the new technologies as part of a liberationist meta-narrative.

scholarly journals Metropolis and post-modern metropolis as a critical field of modern mimicry

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-254
Author(s):  
Nenad Stjepanović
Keyword(s):  
Critical Field ◽  
Visual Communication ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Mechanical Reproduction ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Money Economy ◽  
Definition Of

Hegel's analysis and definition of the work of art in the Esthetic foretold transformation in visual communication and perception of arts in the advertising age. During the transformative period of economy into money economy fundamental social and cultural ruptures introduced new methods of transgression in forms expression and conception of meaning in arts, and by implication, in architecture. Aesthetic radically departed from the norms of figuration in the classical art into symbolic reading. These exigencies in style and conception reflected the new consciousness that was impinged on by the age of sciences and mechanical reproduction.

scholarly journals Aura dalam Reproduksi Digital: Membaca Ulang Walter Benjamin

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Fransisco Budi Hardiman
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Mass Consumption ◽  
Mechanical Reproduction ◽  
Political Function ◽  
Digital Reproduction ◽  
Modern Work

<p><em>Walter Benjamin’s essay, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1939), has revealed the fundamental changes of modern work of art affected by its mechanical reproduction. Camera, tape recorder, print machine have turned the work of art to be mass consumption, autonomous from tradition and ritual, and it has now a political function. According to Benjamin all of those new technologies have faded up the aura since the work of art lost its authenticity and its uniqueness. We are in the different era than Benjamin’s because nowadays digital reproduction by means of the internet ends the need of medium for the work of art, multiply and spread it very rapidly. The author comments on Benjamin’s analysis and applies it to discuss the ontological, epistemological, and axiological issues of the work of art in the age of digital reproduction. He argues that in the digital age the work of art will be still auratic if it reveals ‘the extraordinary’ in the experience of our humanity.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><strong>Key words</strong>:<em> aura, hyperpolitization, work of art, medium, attention, digital reproduction </em></p>

scholarly journals A reprodutibilidade técnica da obra cinematográfica – representação ou clonagem: uma análise crítica de um conceito básico de Walter Benjamin

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 285-298
Author(s):  
Georg Otte
Keyword(s):  
Infinite Number ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Mechanical Reproduction ◽  
Aesthetic Distance ◽  
Aesthetic Concepts

Resumo: A reprodução técnica da obra de arte, um dos conceitos estéticos mais citados de Walter Benjamin, evidencia-se como um conceito ambíguo quando submetido a uma análise mais meticulosa. Este artigo visa mostrar que, para Benjamin, a “reprodução técnica” de uma fotografia ou de um filme significa duas coisas ao mesmo tempo: em primeiro lugar, a eliminação de qualquer distância estética entre o objeto e sua representação e, em segundo lugar, a multiplicação (clonagem) dessa representação na forma de um número infinito de cópias. A não-diferenciação entre os dois processos e sua fundição no termo reprodução corre o risco de resultar em alguns mal-entendidos.Palavras-chave: Walter Benjamin; reprodução; representação; arte.Abstract: The mechanical reproduction of the work of art, one of the most quoted aesthetic concepts of Walter Benjamin, turns out to be ambiguous when submitted to a closer analysis. The following article aims to show that for Benjamin the “mechanical reproduction” of a photograph or a film means two things at the same time: first, the elimination of any aesthetic distance between the object and its representation and, second, the multiplication (“cloning”) of this representation in an infinite number of identical copies. The non-differentiation between the two processes and their fusion in the term of reproduction may result in some misunderstandings.Keywords: Walter Benjamin, reproduction, representation, art.

scholarly journals Anotações sobre Walter Benjamin e as teias constituídas entre fotografia e imaginário/ Writings about Walter Benjamin and webs between photography and imaginary

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Cláudia Mariza Mattos Brandão
Keyword(s):  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Active Participation ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Symbolic Expression ◽  
Communicative Acts ◽  
Mechanical Reproduction ◽  
Philosophical Dialogue ◽  
The World

Resumo: O estabelecimento de relações entre Fotografia e Imaginário impulsionam ponderações acerca dos abundantes modos de olhar, interpretar e narrar o mundo. O artigo parte dessa ideia para discutir sobre a dinâmica das imagens e dos símbolos como propulsores de outras narrativas ou discursos, com base nas ideias de Walter Benjamin sobre narrações/narradores. Considerando que as imagens são matérias dinâmicas, derivadas da nossa participação ativa no mundo, é possível afirmar que elas expõem nosso pensar no âmbito das emoções, confrontado com nossas ações. Assim sendo, pondero sobre o fotógrafo como um narrador estranhado e entranhado, para quem o conhecimento assume a forma de expressão poética/simbólica, na compreensão da importância de ir contra qualquer interpretação dada como última ou definitiva, como quer Benjamin. A fotografia entendida como narração e vida, campo de luta entre o presente, o passado e o futuro, demarca também mais um diálogo filosófico com Walter Benjamin, que no seu clássico texto “A obra de Arte na Era da sua Reprodutibilidade Técnica” postula a relação da fotografia e do cinema como modos “modernos” de expressão, desenvolvidos e utilizados de acordo com as demandas e as possibilidades de uma modernidade desconexa, fragmentária e efêmera. Tais referências, aproximadas das teorias do imaginário, estruturam o conceito de “crônica visual narrativa”, na consideração de que fotografias derivam de atos comunicativos, através dos quais os sujeitos partilham visões de mundo. Essas ideias resultaram em tese doutoral.Palavras-chave: Walter Benjamin; Fotografia; Imaginário.Abstract: Establishing relations between photography and imaginary triggers thoughts about several ways of seeing, interpreting and narrative the world. This paper uses this idea to discuss the dynamics of images and symbols as propellers of other narratives or discourses based on Walter Benjamin’s ideas about narratives/narrators. Considering that images are dynamic matter, which derives from our active participation in the world, we may state that they expose our emotional thinking, by comparison with our actions. Therefore, I ponder on a photographer as a narrator who is estranged and entangled, whose knowledge takes the form of poetic/symbolic expression, in the source for understanding the importance of disagreeing with any interpretation that is posed as the last or definitive, as proposed by Benjamin. Photography, as narrative and life, battlefield between of present, past and future, also limits a philosophical dialogue with Walter Benjamin, who, in his classic text “The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction”, defends the relation between photography and movies. Both are modern ways of expression which are developed and used in agreement with demands and possibilities of a disconnected, fragmented and ephemerous modernity. Such references, related to the theories of imaginary, form the concept of “narrative visual chronicle”, considering that photographies derive from communicative acts which enable subjects to share world perspectives. These ideas resulted in a doctoral dissertation.Keywords: Walter Benjamin; Photography; Imaginary.

scholarly journals The Elusive Allure of “Aura”: Sample-based Music and Benjamin’s Practice of Quotation

2011 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Owen B. Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Music ◽  
Da Vinci ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Leonardo Da Vinci ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Mechanical Reproduction

ABSTRACT This article discusses both sample-based and electronic music in relation to Walter Benjamin’s infamous text, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” The applicability of “aura” to such music is questioned, in favour of other considerations, such as practices of collecting, remembering, selecting, and connecting. The relationships between performance, “liveness,” and technologically enabled forms of music are explored. Authors who have written about Benjamin’s text in relation to modern audio (re)production are compared and contrasted. I also reference interviews I conducted with a group of sample-based sound artists from Montréal, Canada, between 2004 and 2005. My discussion brings me to Benjamin’s use of Leonardo da Vinci’s disparaging comments about music compared with painting in the latter’s Paragone. I conclude by asserting that Benjamin’s practice of quotation is more relevant than his conception of “aura” in terms of discussing “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” in relation to contemporary, reproduction-based artistic practices such as electronic and/or sample-based music.RÉSUMÉ  Cet article discute à la fois de la musique à base d’échantillons sonores et la musique électronique par rapport au texte notoire de Walter Benjamin, « L’OEuvre d’art à l’époque de sa reproductibilité technologique ». Dans mon article, je mets en question la possibilité d’appliquer l’idée d’« aura » à de telles musiques, favorisant plutôt d’autres approches, tels les pratiques de collectionner, évoquer, sélectionner et échanger la musique. J’explore les rapports entre l’interprétation, la représentation et les formes de musique basée sur les progrès technologiques. Je compare des auteurs qui ont recouru au texte de Benjamin pour commenter les (re)productions sonores modernes et je mets en évidence les différences entre ces auteurs. Je me rapporte en outre à des entrevues que j’ai menées auprès d’un groupe d’échantillonneurs montréalais en 2004 et 2005. Ma discussion me mène à l’utilisation par Benjamin de propos désobligeants tenus par Léonardo da Vinci dans son Paragone envers la musique par rapport à la peinture. J’en arrive à la conclusion que la pratique de Benjamin de citer d’autres textes est plus pertinente que son concept d’« aura » pour discuter des pratiques artistiques contemporaines basées sur la reproduction telles que la musique à base d’échantillons et la musique électronique.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document