From the reading, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin, I am very interested in his analysis of our engagement of different forms of art and how it has changed from appreciating its craft and beauty as a object into art which blends and allows for a reflection into our societal realities. As successfully argued by Benjamin, technology can make reproductions of art superior than the originals, through processes including, but not limited to, slow motion technology or the ability to zoom in on a subject, in present day cinematic experience. Using the notion of historical precedent, pervious art only looked at “perfect” objects in society because man made objects didn’t have the ability to be produced quickly or efficiently enough work to show larger societal changes. Therefore, reproductions by mechanical systems and redundancy can allow one to reflect on the quality of the original and decay the beautiful aura in historical art can show contemporary societal vulnerability.

As compliment to Walter Benjamin, Marshall McLuhan’s ideology in “The Medium is the Message” examines the relationship of the human and our intelligence to technological mediums. As examined by McLuhan, mediums and the media of technology are ultimately extensions of ourselves and our self constructed reality. The area of interest in the text comes from the statement about how content of a medium is separated from the form which the media takes. For instance, in the text the example of print media is discussed as a form which carries content. However, the usual interpretation and reflection of print media such as the newspaper is not the paper material itself or the ink that is on the page, rather it is the story or message its describing. This allows for the reader or the engagement with mediums to detach itself from the art of medium into the message that the medium presents to the viewer.