Claire Bishop’s “Digital Divide” resonates greatly with Walter Benjamin’s “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”. She states, “faced with the infinite multiplicity of digital files, the uniqueness of the art object needs to be reasserted in the face of its infinite, uncontrollable dissemination via Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.” Similarly, Benjamin states that while traditional forms of art such as painting and sculpture were valued for their unique existence and exclusivity, modern forms of art in the age of mechanical reproduction (such as film, video, and photography) were valued for their appeal to the masses and more effortless dissemination. Bishop relates the contemporary artist’s’ reluctance to embrace the effortless dissemination of video, film, and photography to their reverence for history and “craft” (the “physicality” of the editing process). Bishop also believes that these artists prefer to create art with film more than digital media/ video because they perceive that film is harder to reproduce and thus “rarer”. Therefore, they are striving to return to the days of traditional art when rarity gifted more value to a work of art. I believe that, besides nostalgia and a desire to return to tradition, contemporary artists and the art market are currently trying to cope with the effortless dissemination of new forms of art because although these newer forms have more political power (due to their accessibility to the masses), they have less monetary power.
Another interesting belief of artists using art forms from the age of mechanical reproduction is the belief that audiences viewing work in a museum have a greater capacity for developing a closer relationship with art than those viewing it online. This view contrasts from Benjamin’s, which states that a piece of art removed from it’s original setting (a triptych removed from its church and placed in a museum) loses it’s aura. Benjamin would argue that subjects from any photo, film, or video has already lost their aura, regardless of whether the art is shown in a museum or online.