ical extension of Benjamins view; that reproduction yields a lack of respect, perhaps even a complete indifference to the value of the original. The idea that the tools for reproduction are increasingly accessible to the public may also lead to reproduction being non-discriminate, and applying to anything that can be digitized. Art made on a computer theoretically exists nowhere as an original, other than as a sequence of digits. To see it (even for the creator of it) means to always be seeing a reproduction. And then, if the artist puts his or her work on the internet, anyone can - instantaneously, with no speed at all acquire a copy of this artwork. Their reproduction will then be indistinguishable from what the artist was viewing on his or her monitor when the work was first produced. Benjamins idea that film is the most effective in dismantling the aura of art may have been premature. Today, we see digital forms of media as having the potential to facilitate the reproduction as well as the distribution of these reproduced materials and works of art. He explains how the masses attend movies to come into contact with cultural norms. Applying his ideas regarding film to new media is effective in understanding the magnitude and importance of his argument. Benjamin compares the painter and the cameraman to a magician and a surgeon in an analogy to enforce his disdain for film. Magician and surgeon compare to painter and cameraman. The painter maintains in his work a natural distance from reality, the cameraman penetrates deeply into its web. There is a tremendous difference between the pictures they obtain. That of the painter is a total one, that of the cameraman consists of multiple fragments which are assembled under a new law. Thus, for contemporary man the representation of reality by the film is incomparably more significant than that of the painter, since it offers, precisely because of the thoroughgoing permeation of reality wit...
