The authority of art

New Media Art / Ji Sun Lee (Sun) 02/12/2005

The authority of art

Through my life in New York, I’m very confused about the definition of art. When I went to PS1 in Queens or the Whitney in Manhattan, most art works gave me a shock or horrible feeling rather than deep impression. In Korea, I thought the art should give humans a great impression and have beauty in the point of aesthetics. I know the traditional art, including the medieval painting and music, has a hierarchy which was determined by critics, and compels people to appreciate from the same view of the critics about the aesthetic. Then, contemporary artworks crush a set notion of traditional art’s definition and are eager to explore the pure beauty or the authority in art.

However, people couldn’t understand the value or philosophy of the contemporary art without any background information. They just enjoy seeing famous artworks in person. In the MOMA museum, the majority of art pieces have already showed on mass media such as art history books, posters, or television. The art pieces were reproduced by the media and recognized for political or cultural objects. Even if the reproduced artwork couldn’t include as much “aura” of the original piece, the art work causes almost the same meaning with text descriptions in terms of the purpose in art history.

The traces of the first can be revealed only by chemical or physical analyses which it is impossible or perform on a reproduction; changes of ownership are subject to a tradition which must be traced from the situation of the original. … The reason is two fold. First, process reproduction is more independent of the original than manual reproduction. … Secondly, technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach for the original itself. … And what is really jeopardized when the historical testimony is affected is the authority of the object.
Water Benjamin “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”

The reproduction of art leads to cultural power in the world. Most Asians know and remember the name of western paintings or painters more than their country’s art. The meaning of the reproduction has become very important in Western painting, print, photography, and movies during the last three centuries from the Industrial Revolution to the present. On the other hand, reproduction of the art changed Asian culture and life by the name of civilization during the last century. In the 21st century, the copyright is a crucial issue in images, music and other cultural products. The reproduction tends to try to include their copyright or authority to prove the original.

However, through the digital media period, keeping a copyright is difficult or almost impossible because of property for saving data or information. The digital technologies are drawing the different political power map in the world. At the present, America and East Asia are in the center of the mainstream of the digital technology power. The mass produced artwork from these regions would occupy the mainstream of the art like western reproduction technology occupied Asian culture before.

Artist have always been among the first to reflect on the culture and technology of their time, and decades before the digital revolution had been officially proclaimed, they were experimenting with the digital medium. … digital technology has now reached such a stage of development that it offers entirely new possibilities for the creation and experience of art.
Christiane Paul “Digital Art”

The development of new possibilities for the creation and experience of art would require more and more difficult and high technology, and the artist would try to reflect the newest technology with their artwork. Having more knowledge about various technology or capital for owning technology would be new issues among the artists beyond their pure passion. Furthermore, the artists could control the technology like an engineer, and the artwork with more complex technology would need to various expert’s collaboration.

In this project the artist was considered a resource in an actual physical situation with a functional end. … Underlying this whole complex of values and practices there is the assumption of consistency and integrity of authorship. … “Our dilemma is whether the artists have created a work of fine art or a work of commercial art to which there are rights which must be guaranteed.”
Billy Kluver “EAT” from New Media Reader

This form of collaboration makes people determine the authority or ownership about the artwork. In fact, the authority of the art is important to the person who can have a right to the artwork and get benefits. On the other hand, the authority doesn’t matter to other spectators because spectators just want to enjoy art. The authority of the art is related to capitalism beyond the pure purpose of the art because the artists need to preserve a copyright to obtain wealth and fame. The endeavor of keeping an original art or reproduction with a copyright has the same goal about art. Even though they object that the art become commercial, the authority of the art makes people compeled to obey their art. When the artist becomes free from the authority and allows infinite reproduction, they will realize the pure passion of art.