Ways of Seeing

Essay Number One

Yi Zhong

Feb.10.2019

Cars: The Defender of Aura

In his essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, the author Walter Benjamin

introduces the term aura as a vital conceptual element in traditional art that is to be destroyed by modern

mechanical reproductions like photography and film, causing a crisis of artistic value. Specifically, forms

of mechanical reproductions as powerful as photography are able to weaken or even eliminate an artwork’s

originality and exhibition value to the audience by making copies of art which are much more accessible

and almost as authentic to the original (p.4-5 The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction ,

Walter Benjamin). Tradition art forms like paintings are considered the biggest victims. However, being

widely considered as a rather special form of art, and an iconic offspring of mechanical reproduction itself,

cars are able to retain their aura better than most art forms with possession of firm originality.

Considering that major forms of mechanical reproduction are two dimensional, artworks can defend

their aura by differentiating themselves from reproductions dimension-wise. Paintings, because of their

two dimensional nature, are destined to be almost authentically captured by photography and thus easily

lose their aura, while three dimensional art forms like sculptures can still retain part of their aura against

photography and film. As in this battle of dimension, cars stand out to be arguably the most formidable

among art. To begin with, as a massive three dimensional art form, a car can be considered as a sub-genre

of sculpture, which means any form of 2D reproduction or even proportional 3D models will drastically

diminish its aesthetic value. However, it is much more than a common sculpture. With the iconic roar

beneath the bonnet, cars have added one more dimension to themselves as an art form, and this dimension
has fiercely challenged mechanical reproductions to be even more holistic and vivid. Moreover, born to be

a transportation, a car’s nature is about movement. Only when running can a car combine the aesthetics of

both sculptures and music, and its ability to move helps a car emphasizes its presence in time and space as

not only an artwork, but also an artist. Apart from their own aesthetic value, cars eminently overshadow

other art forms in the ability to relate themselves to their environment artistically, blending in and

constituting a new piece of art at any moment. Apart from their reflexive surface, this ability is highly

attributed to cars’ moving nature, which further guarantees the car with the potential to interact and

“conquer” its environment anywhere anytime, and such beautiful tension is nowhere to be found in a

similar situation with still artworks like paintings, sculptures, or even films (in this case, though the

footage has movement, the screen does not). Last but not least, as a form of mechanical reproduction itself,

cars have retained their rarity and originality to the audience by embracing its reproducible nature. Most

cars that are highly valued as art are produced in a limited amount and with the most delicate manner, and

unlike photos or films, they are so complex and demanding that no one except the company itself is able to

reproduce even one single more actual model, which highlights the value of witness of any actual model

from the audience.

Overall, the arguments above are not at all to emphasize how cars are in any way superior to other art

forms even in modern days, however, while major art forms like paintings are deeply suffering from

mechanical reproduction, those ways in which cars defend their aura might serve as examples for

traditional art lovers and institutions to better situate and exhibit those victims so that they can more or less

preserve or regain their aura. While a car is born to stretch its limbs on the road, people can send paintings

back to where they first belonged: churches, palaces, ceilings, or even the masters’ original studios. While

people admire Bugatti Veyron as the triumph of mankind’s pursuit for speed, museums can also provide
more historical backgrounds for the artworks: what difficulty arose when it was painted? how was it

brilliantly solved by the master, and under what cost? While a car impresses the audience from all

dimensions with movement and sound, exhibitors should try organizing comprehensive and style-oriented

exhibitions, such as Baroque era with its architectures, paintings, sculptures, and even music... Mankind

were intelligent enough to make art, vandalize art, and they shall be able to save art as well.