Response for Week Six
Mechanically reproduced art, has been around for some time. Coins for example, are tiny works of underrated art that everyone owns. No matter how many times one reproduces a Monet, or the Mona Lisa, the original is still valued much more. The concept though of mechanical reproduction and art opens some questions. If a song is recorded onto a CD and mass-produced is that song now considered a copy of an original work? Then would live performance be the only way to see an artist perform his or her song without it being mechanically reproduced, because although the same lyrics are being sung, there would be subtle differences. In terms of photography it is stated, “Since the eye perceives moreswiftly than the hand can draw, the process of pictorial reproduction was accelerated so enormously that it could keep pace with speech. A film operator shooting a scene in the studio captures the images at the speed of an actor's speech. Just as lithography virtually implied the illustrated newspaper, so did photography foreshadow the sound film” The art of photography, and then film helped to greatly increase the mechanical reproduction movement.
-Maddison McCauley
