BUSH AND BENJAMIN

In a 1945 Atlantic article, titled “As We May Think, “ Vannevar Bush theorizes about the future of technology. He notes that “Had a Pharaoh been given detailed and explicit designs of an automobile, and had he understood them completely, it would have taxed the resources of his kingdom to have fashioned the thousands of parts for a single car, and that car would have broken down on the first trip to Giza.” This is the perfect preface to his article, as Bush can see where mechanical advancement will take us, but cannot fully comprehend how we will get there.

While exploring the implications of 1940’s photography, Bush brings up possible innovations such as helmet cameras and even digital cameras, allowing one to snap and look at pictures immediately with no wet processing. Bush then speaks to an early voice generation machine called Voder. He develops this early advancement into what will become talking text and digital voice recorders. Most interestingly, Bush creates the basic concept for the modern day computer and the internet, which he calls Memex. “It consists of a desk, and while it can presumably be operated from a distance, it is primarily the piece of furniture at which he works. On the top are slanting translucent screens, on which material can be projected for convenient reading. There is a keyboard, and sets of buttons and levers. Otherwise it looks like an ordinary desk.”

In “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Walter Benjamin discusses the effects of recreating artistic works. His main thesis revolves around the producability of art evolving into the mass producability of art due to advancements in photography. Benjamin has some concern with the authenticity of art, and the ever-swaying balance of exhibition and cult value. With the reproduction capabilities provided by photography, “exhibition value begins to displace cult value all along the line. But cult value does not give way without resistance. It retires into an ultimate retrenchment: the human countenance.” In this sense, art appears to lose its aura; however it extends the ability to deliver art to the viewer’s situation. This is especially true with film. Certainly Forrest Gump does not lose its aura whether viewed live on set, the original 16mm film, VHS, DVD, or even BluRay. It could even be argued that viewing it on BluRay would increase its aura in comparison to the original setting.

These articles apply to the conversations we will be having in HATODA due to their application of internet like concepts. While Bush had incredible premonitions of technologic advancements, Benjamin speaks to the implications of such machines. There is much dispute regarding the “benefits” of a cyber culture and its effects on the authenticity of art.