Benjamin argues that the ways in which we perceive, understand, and value art has changed. Particularly, he discusses paintings as compared to photography and stage acting as compared to film. He believes that mechanical reproduction has removed the aura from the work of art. The aura is equated with authority and is derived from use value. Aura is uniqueness, situatedness, traces of history/ancestry, the artist purring his/her own energy into the art, and materiality (the physical item is required in order to transfer ownership). The aura is attached to the cult (ritualistic and religious use). With the cult, a person will not question the object because its aura is in the ritual and the person will not question the ritual because he/she believes in it.
However, mechanical reproduction dissipates the aura, which means the art is open to politics. Because the art work’s meaning is no longer determined by the ritual, its meaning is found in ideology. Though mechanical reproduction allows us to begin critiquing the work, we are so inundated and habituated into the art forms that we can become distracted and no longer look for the ideologies embedded in the work. This, according to Benjamin, is what the Fascists are doing; they are using art to indoctrinate people. (i.e. This article is linked to the idea that people may fear technological changes because of indoctrination.)
He vaguely ties these ideas to writing: “The enormous changes which printing, the mechanical reproduction of writing, has brought about in literature are a familiar story. However, within the phenomenon which we are here examining from the perspective of world history, print is merely a special, though particular important, case” (219).
Perception
He discusses perception as well. He argues that the ways of seeing have been changed by technological changes. Our sense perception is changed because the medium changes. When we can no longer stand in front of the material object, we perceive it differently (222). He also argues that our habits are formed from the tactical, not perception (the optical) (240).