It is difficult to think of many historical events more
impactful than Industrialization. The growth of machines and industry brought
about city life and affected the lives of just about anyone it came near. It’s
easy to talk about the great things this did for the masses, but it’s also
critically important to observe the negatives. William Blake writes in his poem
The Chimney Sweeper:
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, &
Jack,
Were
all of them locked up in coffins of black;
This is one of many literary works lamenting the cruel child
labor and nasty soot that followed industrialization. A great amount of
rebellion was found among the masses as well, namely the Luddites, who fought
against the automation of the early 19th century. Juxtaposing the tribulations
of the population dealing with early industrialization with the idea that it
was industrialization that paved the way for the modern technological
revolution, one may have a difficult time forming a hard and fast opinion on
the matter.
 |
| The dark and gloomy gases of early Industrialization filling the city. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255/la/smokestack2.jpg |
A secondary topic on technology involves Walter Benjamin and
reproduction of art. Aside from the political motivations and his apparent
distaste for capitalism, Benjamin writes about the unavoidable loss of “aura”
that is inherent in mechanical reproduction of art. A better understanding of
the “aura” is supplied by Ludwig Klages (the German philosopher who coined the
term for this context), and this entails seeing the “true meaning” of a given
object in its “presence.” This is something that transcends the physical object
and ultimately cannot be duplicated by any means.
 |
| Does an "aura" exist for art made by a robot, which can be remade exactly over and over again? http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/wow/vuedessus2.jpg |
Christopher Nolan’s The
Prestige (a 2006 film) gives a different yet intriguing perspective on this
topic by questioning the normative element attached to duplication. In short, the film follows two magicians who figure out how to duplicate
themselves by using a machine created by Tesla. There are numerous times in the
movie where the viewer is unsure of whether the person on screen is the
original or not. In one of their illusions, the ‘magician’ would enter a box
and seconds later appear at the other side of the venue. The magician, Angier,
said near the end of the movie that it took immense courage to do this since he
had no idea if he had to be the magician in the box or the one that appeared on
the other side (the man in the box always drowned). The disturbing idea here is
that not even the magicians knew who the original was – there was no original.
As soon as the duplication occurred there were now two identical people with
the same memories and experiences, and neither had any right to be the “original”
or argue about “aura.”
 |
| The Prestige. In the end we see all the containers of water Angier drowned his "duplicates" in to perform his trick, never knowing which was the original. http://dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/the-prestige-e1382993890627.jpg |
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Works Cited
" A Brief History of Our Craft" History of the Chimney Sweep. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. <"http://www.ruchalachimney.com/history.html>.
"ArtBots Gent, the Robot Talent Show 2011." ArtBots: The Robot Talent Show. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <http://artbots.org/2011/>.
Blake, William. "The Chimney Sweeper: When My Mother Died I Was Very Young." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, Web. 18 Apr. 2015. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172910>.
"Ludwig Klages: Biocentric Metaphysics." Ludwig Klages: Biocentric Metaphysics. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.
Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/paul-val%C3%A9ry>.
The Prestige. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Perf. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. Buena Vista, 2006.
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