Reproduction
Related: aura - Walter Benjamin - copy - information - internet - mass production - media - meme - printing - printmaking - recording - sexual reproduction - technology - The Painter of Modern Life - The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
The Greeks knew only two procedures of technically reproducing works of art: founding and stamping. Bronzes, terra cottas, and coins were the only art works which they could produce in quantity. All others were unique and could not be mechanically reproduced. With the woodcut graphic art became mechanically reproducible for the first time, long before script became reproducible by print. --Walter Benjamin, 1936
Definition
Reproduction is the creation of one thing as a copy of, product of, or replacement for a similar thing, e.g. photocopying and the making of replicas.It is perhaps most commonly used in the context of biological reproduction and sex.
For the purpose of this site, it is used most often in the sense of mechanical or digital reproductive technologies, especially in mass media and mass production.
--See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproduction [Oct 2004]
Critics
Charles Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin were the earliest essayists to write about the effects of mass production and mass media.