walter benjamin

1.       What is the difference between cult value and exhibition value in art? How does Benjamin see these values in relation to politics?

Cult value is the way in which an image is interpreted, meaning it can be viewed differently by different people. Exhibition value is how the painting actually come across to the eye itself.
2. What is the difference between Erfahrung and Erlebnisse? How does it relate to art?

–erfahrung is refered to as intergrated experience while erlebnisse refers to isolated experienced. Erfahrung is looking at art from a point of view of someone who has a background about the image. While erlebnisse (isolated experience) is an individual looking at something without having any back ground information about it.
3. Explain some of the positive and negative effects of the destruction of the "aura" in art.

A positive affect of “aura” is it allows professionals to alter a certain image to represent what it is that they are trying to convey to the audience. A negative aspect of this as Benjamin state it that, interference with the aura of an image takes away the initial felling or experience that one is suppose to get from viewing it.
4. How would you judge or evaluate the impact of forms of mass culture like film in contemporary life? Have they changed human perception? Are they are important part of creating political consciousness in the public?

mass culture impacts life in a major way because it translate reality differently. Mass culture tend to give the people what they want to see, in other words people are often shield away from the actual tragedies going on in life, instead the media portrays things differently to the people, making it seem as though life situations are not actual.