Theme 2: Critical Media Studies

Dialectic of Enlightenment 

1. What is "Enlightenment"? 

The Enlightenment was a period during the 18th century in which science and reason were emphasized over beliefs and tradition. It was a time in which insitutions like the church was challenged. During the Enlightenment, it was believed that knowledge is power. Anything that did not conform to calculability and utility was to be taken with suspicion.

2. What is "Dialectic"?
Dialectic is a method for reasoning and resolving disagreements, to seek for the truth by rational arguments.

3. What is "Nominalism" and why is it an important concept in the text? Nomalism denies the concept of universals, which is the charactheristics of objects. It also denies abstract objects, objects that are neither spatial nor temporal. It says that everything is concrete.
It is an important concept for the time of which the text is speaking, the Enlightenment, in which science was put in front of faith, and nominalism denies anything that is not “real” nor unique.

4. What is the meaning and function of "myth" in Adorno and Horkheimer's argument?
They argue that myth exists to report, to name and to tell origins - to narrate, to record and to explain. It is a way of preserving stories and history. They also say that humans are free from fear when they have an explanation of the world, myths therefore also functions as a way to fill in the blanks and not leave anything unknown to man. During the Enlightment, science takes a leading role in explaining the world instead of  through myths.

The Work of Art in the Age of Technical Reproductivity

1. In the beginning of the essay, Benjamin talks about the relation between "superstructure" and "substructure" in the capitalist order of production. What do the concepts "superstructure" and "substructure" mean in this context and what is the point of analyzing cultural production from a Marxist perspective?

The capitalist order of production means the system of producing and distribution products in a capitalist society, a society where the producer has ownership over his products. Superstructure is a structure including the culture, norms and values of a society. It is based on the institutions of economi, law and politics. The substructure is where the production is made. A change in the substructure changes the superstructure. In this text, one change is of the reproduction techniques of printing, making it possible for the society to take part of litterature in a larger extension. Hence the superstructure is affected and changed due to the substructure. From a Marxist perspective, analyzing cultural production tells about the society. During the time in which Benjamins article was written, there was a fear that culture and artwork would loose it’s orginality and aura when reproduced. From that perspective one can analyze how technical reprodutivity affects the society, mass production of art versus art loosing its aura.

2. Does culture have revolutionary potentials (according to Benjamin)? If so, describe these potentials. Does Benjamin's perspective differ from the perspective of Adorno & Horkheimer in this regard?
Yes. in two different ways. It can either be techological in the sense that technological development has the potential to create new artforms. Photography is an example of this. Art can also be used for politics and propaganda, Benjamin talks about the Fascism movement introducing aestetics to political life.

3. Benjamin discusses how people perceive the world through the senses and argues that this perception can be both naturally and historically determined. What does this mean? Give some examples of historically determined perception (from Benjamin's essay and/or other contexts).

I think he means that naturally determined perception and senses are the senses that we use physically - how we experience the world through our own senses. I think what he means by historically determined sense is how we experience the world from an historical perspective - how we put our experiences into a context that are not just related to physical senses but to society and technological development.

4. What does Benjamin mean by the term "aura"? Are there different kinds of aura in natural objects compared to art objects?

For aura in art object, Benjamin means the object’s unique existance - it’s traditional value connected to the time in which it’s created. From the beginning, art was something created for a religious purpose. Over time, the view on art was changed as it started to be reproduced. Art was instead meant for a wider distribution, created with the exhibition value in mind. It’s aura therefore changed. 

When talking about aura in natural objects, Benjamin defines aura as “the unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be”. It’s the aura created by the spatial distance between the observer and the object. I think this definition is somewhat difficult to understand, but interpret it as natural aura being the objects presence in front of the viewer. This is in contrast to watching a reflection of reality through a camera lens or through a painting.

Sources:

Walter Benjamin - The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction (1936)
https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm

Adorno, Horkheimer - Dialectic of Enlightment (1944)
http://monoskop.org/images/2/27/Horkheimer_Max_Adorno_Theodor_W_Dialectic_of_Enlightenment_Philosophical_Fragments.pdf

Susan Buck-Morss - Aesthetics and Anaesthetics: Walter Benjamin’s Artwork Essay Reconsidered (1992)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/778700?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/enlightenment/
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nominalism-metaphysics/

http://sociology.about.com/od/Key-Theoretical-Concepts/fl/Base-and-Superstructure.htm https://www.nextnature.net/2012/08/walter-benjamin-on-film-and-the-senses/
https://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elljwp/aura.htm