Concept of Originality

In CMC 200 on thursday, the class discussion was the mash-up culture. As I am sure everyone remembers this from CMC 200, the question of originality and art came into the arguments. Naturally, those who had CMC 300 right after had Benjamin and the question of reproduction on mind. Taylor brought us the quote that Hope talked about her blog; "The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity". In my opinion, understanding this quote opens the door to understanding Benjamin's theories of the postmodern world. In terms of mash-ups, which is a song created with snippets of many other songs. Some argue it is not an original piece of music because the creator has taken another artist's work. However, just like the reproduction of a famous piece of art, something new has been created. So the prerequisite has already been created, and there lies the concept of authenticity with the newly created piece of work. 

Also, as I was looking for more information on Walter Benjamin, I came across an interesting fact that I thought I would share. After Walter's father ended his career in the banking world in Paris, he later become an antique dealer in Berlin. I thought this was significant with his ideas on antiques. Obviously, in today's world everything is made for speed and the "now". However, as time passes pieces created now will eventually be made into antiques.