# Marxism, Reproduction and Aura Marx, "Capital" excerpt; ● Utility = value ≠ the amount of labour required ≠ & = commodity presents use value and exchange value ● Labour twofold nature - use value cannot confront each other... ● Bodies of commodities = matter + labour ● Value in commodity A exist in relation to commodity B ● Labour creating value for a product is a value itself Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the age of Mechanical Reproduction"; ● No identical reproduction in a work of art due its missing presence in time and space ● Aura of art is reduced when it is mechanically reproduced ● Uniqueness = inseparable from its being imbedded in the fabric of tradition ● Films makes you unable to think; your thoughts are replaced by moving images compared to an arrest by a painting ● Public is an examiner, but an absent-minded one Critique of Digital Capitalism Chapter 3 ● Illusion of infinite resources of the digital production without any real expenditure ● Aura of info: separation of the meaning present in a work from the physical representation of that work ● Capitalist paradox of escalating value - constant demand to create more commodity value in order to extract more wealth from society …. ● Digital copies are all identical originals ● Rejection of real expenditures required… ● Limit of a digital work not based on time but rather on its availability within contemporary tech. Obsolete > emulation ● Digital - accumulation and management problems ● Illusion that digital is immaterial ● Reproduction is the source and vehicle for a work’s aura ● Aura of digital suggests magical production without consumption = digital capitalism and elision of capitalism ● Abbing: Art became less obscure, more accessible and thus less magical because of technical reproduction ● Aura is extended through copies rather than diminishing. Authenticity becomes a meaningful value once there are reproductions of an art work, similar but identical in appearance to their source ● Art with dual nature: history testimony and the relationship of that object to the tradition that produced it = physical and spectator’s knowledge ● Uniqueness of IP: right to read than own a copy Conclusions ● Theories are lenses that help to see, analyse, and dissect our world. There is no “correct” theories but ones that help us see things with clarity better.