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Articles

No. 7 (2018): ARTis ON 7 - Art & Power

The Work of Art in the age of its selfiesation: empowerment, social swarms and aesthetic hygienism

DOI
https://doi.org/10.37935/aion.v0i7.204
Submitted
August 2, 2022
Published
2018-12-28

Abstract

This essay focus on the impact of contemporary practices of self-representation, also known as selfie, in the traditional forms of fruition of the artistic object. The many transformations of the ontological role of the artistic object, resulting in the last decade from the appearance of new concepts of “visual conviviality” have led us to read again the famous essay by Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. In fact, behind the phenomenon the recurring Selfiesation of the world we witness a clear injunction of the subject/observer on the «aura» and power of the artistic object. This clear desacralisation promotes the symbolic empowerment of the subject in detriment of the «aura» of the artistic object, changing its nature and bringing us to the unconscious arenas the social swarms do represent. This fact has led to the resurgence of threatening phenomena of denunciation of “degenerative art” under a growing and overwhelming aesthetic hygienism.

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