“… for the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual. To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility.”Walter Benjamin
The German philosopher Walter Benjamin wrote these words in his landmark 1935 essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. While Benjamin’s thesis centred on the character of art in a capitalist society and the effects of mass reproduction – and reproducibility – on it, it’s tempting to see parallels to the effect that photocopying had on the production and availability of textual material in the modern era.
