Irresistible historicity of media: contemplations over the concept of auraticity by W. Benjamin

The research objective is to critically conceptualize W. Benjamin’s thesis on losing aura as a consequence of technical reproduction of art. W. Benjamin stemmed from the idea that the material substrate and the accompanying uniqueness (cultural-historical appurtenance) are only inherent in traditional works of art, while the creative works whose existence is constituted by technology (cinema and photography, first of all) are devoid of these properties and, as a consequence, auraticity. The article shows that media technology is liable to obsolescence (both moral and physical) not less that the substrate of traditional art, and with obsolescence, its specific materialness increasingly manifests. Becoming obsolete, technical means of reproduction transform into a sensually perceived embodiment of the historical epoch to which the work of art belongs; they determine its unrepeatable “here and now”. The scientific novelty of the paper lies in the author’s attempt to demonstrate that Benjamin’s idea of the crisis of aura is only valid for a specific cultural and historical context and that a concretization of the concept of aura and an analysis of trends in the further development of media technology allow for its reconsideration. The research result is a conclusion that, given the definitions of aura in Benjamin’s early texts, one may assume that even technically funded kinds of art are not devoid of auraticity; however, the latter manifests itself only while specific technical means cease being the dominant form of media of a certain epoch.