171 Assignment 6

It is true that in the age we live in, more and more things are produced on a mass scale and are not authentic. This makes things much easier to acquire because it is not "authentic" or one of a kind. When it comes to art, most pieces are authentic. But the difference in price between art that is authentic and one that is reproduced is very large. Yes, you cannot ask for the authentic print of a photo, but if you could, this authenticity would make it much more expensive and less available. The fact that a photo can be reproduced again and again means that a lot of people can experience what the photographer has created. The "aura" can still be felt I think, not because it is one of a kind but because of what it is and what it is trying to express. I believe that it is not important to have something that is authentic, that no one else has, but to make it authentic to yourself by the relationship that you develop with it. When it comes down to it, nothing is authentic, it is what we do with that thing that makes it one of a kind and special to us.  Maybe authenticity is important to some in the age of digital design and manufacture, but if it was more important to than that of the ease of mass manufacture and availability, this change to art that is made for reproducibility would not be so prevalent as it is today.