Aura: An Elusive Concept in Art Theory and Museum Practice

According to Tate’s online glossary Art Terms, aura is a quality integral to an artwork that cannot be communicated through mechanical reproduction techniques. So what happens to the aura in the age of digital reproduction? The paper describes the origin of this concept, which was introduced by the author and art critic Walter Benjamin in 1936 and became popular in the 1980s. Today, aura is used in many different contexts, often as a matter of course and without any explanation. It is not possible to speak of a uniform use of the term; it often appears more as an essayistic auxiliary construct than as a scientifically elaborated, theoretically and empirically sound concept. Nevertheless, aura is one of the essential concepts in the context of the historical authenticity of the object, as it guarantees its authenticity and uniqueness. This paper spans from object and auratisation to the relationship of original and (digital) reproduction to the migration of aura to the (perfect) copy. The quality of the reproduction plays a central role in the career of a work of art, whose appreciation is shown by its reproductions and their mass distribution, both through photography and digitally on the internet. The thesis of the migration of aura suggests that it can be created or transmitted by presentation and narration, both in the real world and the digital realm.