The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction

A great amount of things have changed over the last 20 years and nothing is the same as it use to be, and in future we must expect great transformation of the different techniques of art. In principle a work of art has always been reproducible. Nearly anything made by man was able to be reproduced therefore replicas are made. Different people did it for different reasons, one was to practice these crafts, another was to diffuse their works and lastly for their own gain. Digital reproduction of a work of art represents something new. “Just as water, gas, and electricity are brought into our houses from far off to satisfy our needs in response to a minimal effort, so we shall be supplied with cultural commodities, which will appear and disappear at a simple movement of the hand, hardly more than a sign”(Steven Jobs). Because these replicas are being made it breaks tradition which is the obverse of the contemporary crisis and the renewal of mankindA great amount of things have changed over the last 20 years and nothing is the same as it use to be, and in future we must expect great transformation of the different techniques of art. In principle a work of art has always been reproducible. Nearly anything made by man was able to be reproduced therefore replicas are made. Different people did it for different reasons, one was to practice these crafts, another was to diffuse their works and lastly for their own gain. Digital reproduction of a work of art represents something new. “Just as water, gas, and electricity are brought into our houses from far off to satisfy our needs in response to a minimal effort, so we shall be supplied with cultural commodities, which will appear and disappear at a simple movement of the hand, hardly more than a sign”(Steven Jobs). Because these replicas are being made it breaks tradition which is the obverse of the contemporary crisis and the renewal of mankind.