2008. 7.11 ~ 2008. 8.10

Dance Densely; Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Hot and humid summer has come, and the saddest thing is that we only have around 30 chances to welcome the season. (Some of you might have more than that, though.) This summer has given us, not by me the most famous reading on new art medium, T.W.A.A.M.R. Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (July 15, 1982 ~ September 27, 1940) has influenced modern photography and media art as we know. I believe, most art students and art theory students all over the world have read this, they are still reading it, and they are always struggling with this, mis-translating, mis-understanding, twisting, roaming around, approaching multilaterally, being afraid of touching, or being unable to understand. As I have said several times, 'dense reading' is not to read and understand some articles, books, theses and papers completely, but produce a new thing using your own filtering process, named 'thinking.' Benjamin himself does not seem to be sure of his words, or he could not find out a way to support them, as we, the obsessive scholars do every moment of researching and writing. Yes, there is a space between B knew and B wrote down. That's why we can choreograph our own dances in the space. We keep dancing 'densely' not because it is the right way, or we enjoy it, but because there is no other thing to do with it. Sad? Really?

- Dr. Yoon