Modern Vision

“To an even greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From a photograph negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the authentic” print makes no sense.” I agree with this statement from Walter Benjamin as the originality and authenticity of artworks is lessened by the introduction of mechanical reproduction, such as films and photographs. When an original piece of work is created, such as a painting or sculpture, the aura around this work is important to it as a whole. The aura gives the artwork identity. In the age of digital design, aura has lost its place, it seems to be no longer needed to show identity as although a photograph can be produced repeatedly, the image needs to stand on its own, depending more on the one captured memory or moment of time, in a sense creating a new type of aura; of what is in the image and what the photographer had to do to capture that precise moment. The craft of the artist changing from things easily seen such as brush strokes to the invisible craft of what goes on behind the camera. I think that although the originality of the photograph can now be questioned as mass production had moved so far along, the images must be more shocking or more beautiful to grasp the same initial value or identity.

Craft Today...

Craft today is rare. We rarely see objects crafted rather than machine-manufactured. In early examples of craft, from the craft era, being a crafts-man was seen as lower class and less fortunate to those of higher professions.

Glass blowing is a historic form of craft that is still very common today. The glass is heated and turned to molten bubble; a blowpipe is used to expand the glass into shapes whilst hot, then cooled to make glass vases, bottles, ornaments and statues. The craft of glass blowing is laborious but the artworks created are beautiful and original pieces. Craftsmen take pride in their work, adding colours and textures to add extra interest to their designs