Response to Benjamin Walter by John, Tomer and Chris

The word art has different meanings. That is what Benjamin Walter discussed in "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction".
He criticises the mass-production and commoditization of modern art.
He discuses how technology becomes more and more advanced, and how it could be the answer in duplicating an art work.
Art could always be re-produced, there is always a way to re-create something already done.
What Benjamin Walter is trying to say is that mechanical tools make producing art much easier, and faster.
For him, the aura of each art is the meaning, the understanding of its piece in our society, including its production date and its creator.
We arrived to a world where artist create art that is accessible to consumers.
Benjamin Walter makes a lot of comparisons between the mechanically reproduced work such as movies to unique work such as a painting.
We all have the tools today, to reproduce anything but it is impossible to get the same aura as the original. It is never going to be the same.

In the past, everything that was art formed was always compared, because the original always had a certain trait that no other piece could have. It is unexplainable. It was in a way magical.
We can not compare Leonardo Da Vinci's pieces to someone else that re produces his work because the original paintings contain much more, such as history.
Reproduced art is the reason why the original has more value.
Technology gives more opportunities to reproduce, but in the end, it is not the same effort involved in creating original art.
Walter has many criticisms which could be true:
He believes that an actor on stage can better identify with their roles, and create a better performance then an actor on film.
In a way, Benjamin Walter is correct but, we do not agree whole-heartedly with this criticism.
Actors could be edited later on, but they still have to give a high standard, believable performance to make movie real.
Both have differences: one has live audience, and the other has a camera filming, but for me as a director, my actors do have to give me their 100% for me to be happy with each given scene.
They are not acting for the camera, they are acting for my approval. Until I say the word "cut" or "next", we won’t stop filming.

We live in a world, where anything could be found over the internet. We live in a world, where anything is found where ever and whenever.
Internet has become a tool where we can just research and find any information needed. For us artists, it is a guide, a helpful tool to make us better artists.
Technology is ever evolving, and the computer has been a tool used by many people. Computing has become a part of art because there are so many people out there reproducing art.
Is it fair that people reproduce art created by computers. Is it real, or is it fake?
Does "computing" replace the old fashioned way of creating art? Does it take away the pen and paper?
I believe that it takes a place in our world but I find that it does not have the same representation as work made by a true artist who creates paintings, or something that has value. Computing is just a way to reproduce work, and nothing more.
Does "computing" replace the old fashioned way of creating art?
Computing is also a way to manipulate an image, giving it different content and making it into something new.
In the Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction written by Walter Benjamin, he talks about how technology gives opportunities to reproduce, and how it is not the same effort put in to create these works.
He says that fake art gives the original more value, which we believe is true.
More people recognize other works through remakes. Internet opened a door, easy for us artists to find other work and re produce them.

There are so many questions that could be asked. Everything is changing around us.
Are we still living in the age of mechanical reproduction, or are we living in the age of digital reproduction where everything is all digitally made, where everything is passing through the internet? Is computing replacing the old fashioned way of creating art?
Is it ultimately taking over the role of the pencil and paper?