clem post class

Ok, so first of all I thought it would be a good idea to look up the Thesaurus definition of aura. “The distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround and be generated by a person, thing or place”. This is the idea I had in mind to describe this word but in the note 7 of Benjamin’s text, he speaks of aura as “a unique phenomenon of a distance however close it may be” and relates it to the cult value of the work of art, to its ritual function. I thought I would also look up the definition of cult in the Thesaurus “A system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards a particular figure or object”. Adding all of these word explanations together, I think that we can say that the sense of something’s “aura” is a feeling of inapproachability due to its holy values. No matter how close we may be from that object physically we may not intellectually or mentally be close to it as it remains above us. Benjamin says that this feeling comes from our veneration for a particular object of art that originated with its service of ritual (might that be of the magical or religious kind). But these rituals are part of our past or present traditions, which give to the object its uniqueness. This uniqueness also comes from the objects location in space and time.

So the aura we might feel emanating from something is the distance we feel because of its “religious” value, or its aesthetic value or its famous value (like the Mona Lisa for instance). The fact that something is grand and might we be close to it in a museum for example does not mean we will feel close to it in understanding it emotionally.