Re: [BKARTS] relevance of the book in the internet age

[Charles Brownson <ocotilloarts@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hmm. Yes I'm familiar with Benjamin -- his concept of aura informs my thinking on artists books and digital objects -- see the "studio goals" tab on my website ocotilloarts.com -- and the Arcades Project is near at hand for casual moments. But I hadn't thought of it in this context. Of course the parallel ought to have been obvious. The authentic reading experience requires a paper book, while those who can't afford authenticity make do with a digital simulacrum. The difficulty is, what Benjamin wouldn't have seen the point of looking into, why are these tastes, these  definitions of authentic in the absence of a hegemony, so persistent?  I was thinking of the tendency of material technology to hang on way past its usefulness and I wondered if someone writing from another context had anything to say. 
   Haven't had an opportunity to scrute WOID yet.
Charles
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----- Original Message ----
From: Paul T Werner <paul.werner@xxxxxxx>
To: BOOK_ARTS-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2008 5:53:27 AM
Subject: [BKARTS] relevance of the book in the internet age

Well Charles, you could start with Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" - but I suspect that's not what you want to hear...

Paul Werner, New York
http://theorangepress.com

WOID: A journal of visual language
THE ORANGE PRESS, publishing "Vellum Preparation: History and Technique"
DRAGONSBLOOD AND ASHES, a project to research and practice the techniques of the medieval scribe

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