The Walter Benjamin show was great; thanks! A problem/obstacle to understanding the role of art is that art has been overtaken by entertainment, as in, for example, TED Talks, which should be TAD Talks. People don't seem to want to go deep, be transformed--the effects of art--they want to be distracted--the effects of entertainment. I'm entertained by watching my cat.

摄影以及移动的二维摄影图像是否被正确地描述为一个单独的领域，专门用于本质上由它们的分散能力所预测的对象?这种类型是如何建立在对分散事物的使用上的，就像艺术作品是为了自身的利益而存在的一样，对于艺术作品来说，保护的必要性与任何实用价值无关?必须是高度集中的感官输入产生了分散注意力的能力，以及选择什么以及如何将其组合起来与对观众的影响相对应的技能，从而产生了保存的必要性。然而，当这种二维图像被大量生产和广泛传播时，这种必要性就消失了。相反，这些都是作为一个正常的集体环境的一部分被强加的，在这个环境中，人们更多的是努力摆脱它，而不是保护它。本杰明在1931年关于摄影的文章之外也有类似的东西吗?

Remoteness applies to what isn't there, so that the way things normally are, typical ordinariness, is also the most remote domain from thought-contents, as comprised of what provokes no need for thought and "goes without saying", so to speak. Logic as traditionally understood can be described as an attempt to eliminate the remoteness of the domain of everydayness, with the result that it is brought close to one's explicit consideration and enters into the sphere of practical use.

But what occurs when what is remote is extraordinary, decisively distinct, and unconditionally individual? There come to be two processes of remoteness-removal:
1) accommodate one's body to proximity of the object as an individual;
2) bring a replica of the object to one's area of sensory intake.

第(1)点描述了前摄影时代的艺术产品和它的消费者之间的关系;而第(2)点指出的情况是，所谓的“艺术品”的摄影复制品可以在给定的人群中广泛分布。本雅明使用术语“光环”在技术意义上指的是一个事物的遥远，或它的距离，作为其存在的组成部分，所以二维摄影艺术复制品的分布排除了他们的光环可以持续存在的物质条件。因为本雅明(在《机械复制时代的艺术作品》中)声称，感官吸收的形式和假定的存在环境的形式是协变的，也就是说，它们彼此相互关联，这表明，随着艺术作品中个体差异的气场的消除，人们普遍无法理解任何在其自我主张中遥远的东西，或在其存在时遥远的东西，因此是不同寻常的。

Benjamin draws both negative and positive consequences from this state of affairs:
1) Modus tollens:
a) The authority attributed to the object is eliminated and replaced by that of the subject, who sits in judgement upon it according to how the subject is affected, rather than inadequately understanding a meaning of the original in correspondence to which judgement must be suspended.
2) Modus ponens:
a) Photographic reproduction allows contact-recognition with the original, where a plurality of copies resuscitates it in a multiplicity of surrogate subjects.

在后一点上，本雅明将相机描述为艺术作品从仪式中的社会功能中解放出来的解放者，以至于作品本身被特别地以其可复制性来制作，而邪教组织的仪式基础以摄影肖像的形式存在，并延伸到电影名人的个人崇拜。

Most interesting though in Benjamin's analysis of aura-decay is his view that the evolution of photographic reproduction into moving pictures, or film, is characterized as a revolutionary possibility in what in the above post I called a "genre of distractibles", i.e. that being distracted itself becomes the object, resulting in what Benjamin calls "a heightened presence of mind" in order to not be distracted amidst what is maximally distracting, inducing the subjective habit of attention-decisiveness. How would this apply to later developments in distractibilities such as those associated with use of the internet brought up by Josh above? Does one find that, paradoxically, aura-elimination under conditions of maximized distraction results in aura-restoration by induced self-remoteness?