Week Two: My First JavaScript and Musings on Art Reproduction
Well, I spent most of Sunday afternoon playing around with JavaScript, trying to get a handle on the basics. I’m proud to say that I managed to catch on enough to create something of my own with the aid of the document that the professor shared with us on OneDrive, the W3Schools Online helpful step-by-step tutorials, and a couple of useful YouTube videos. As elementary as my new-found skills are, I’m still proud of myself. We all have to start somewhere!
Please enjoy my screen recording of my afternoon accomplishments by watching my very first YouTube video!
On another note, I’ve been reflecting on our class discussion about art reproduction and Walter Benjamin’s 1935 essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Benjamin argues that “even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art [lacks]” authenticity (3). This authenticity, Benjamin contends, gives original artwork an “aura” (4) that reproductions lack.
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Yet, when I stood before the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, I can’t say that I felt its aura. Being in the presence of such a famous painting should have been inspiring, but I was surrounded by large crowds and overwhelmed by the multilingual conversations going on around me. I was also painfully aware of the July heatwave that took over Paris that week, hungry, and my feet were sore from walking around the museum all day. So, instead of feeling inspired, I felt exhausted, and I didn’t connect with the painting in any way. The distractions were just too great. Because society tells us that being in the presence of something so famous is a momentous occasion that almost demands to be captured, I took an obligatory selfie before moving on to the next exhibit.
Earlier that month, I visited the Château du Clos Lucé, where Leonardo da Vinci spent his final years. There, I got to spend time with a reproduction of the Mona Lisa in a much calmer and more intimate setting.
For me, engaging with the reproduction of the Mona Lisa in the castle was a more personal and less performative experience than engaging with the original Mona Lisa in the Louvre. Did the reproduction lack the aura Benjamin describes? Perhaps a little. But standing in the room where Da Vinci lived and eventually died made me feel more connected to him as an artist. Paradoxically, this helped me to feel more connected to the painting, despite knowing it was a reproduction.
Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear if you’ve had any similar experiences with artwork in its original form versus a reproduction. If so, please share your story with me in the comments! Let’s keep the conversation going.
Work Cited
Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Reproduction.” 1935. Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, edited by Hannah Arendt, translated by Harry Zohn, Shocken Books, 1969, pp. 1–26.
