AURA

I thought it might be helpful to elaborate on the concept  - following are two critical discussions relating to Benjamin's AURA:

"Walter Benjamin’s notion of the “aura” has emerged as one of his most recognizable and widely used theoretical concepts. Defined in historical, aesthetic, and psychological opposition to the techniques of mechanical reproduction, aura has become a common theoretical currency across the arts and humanities... In literary, visual, and cultural studies, aura has become synonymous with the traditional work of art, whose contemplative experience is progressively eroded with the advent of modern media technology. Even in Benjamin’s time, then, aura described a state which had already become obsolete. Aura is thus a concept coined with hindsight, describing an elusive phenomenon from the perspective of its disappearance. It alludes to a groundbreaking cultural shift from authenticity to replication, from uniqueness to seriality, and from the original artwork to its “soulless” mechanical copy."

Imaginary Encounters: Walter Benjamin and the Aura of Photography - Carolin Duttlinger [Poetics Today 29:1 (Spring 2008)]

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"Walter Benjamin's essay, "The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction" initiates the critical discussion of the idea that artworks have "aura," and proposes that this "aura" is destroyed by the process of mechanical reproduction. His notion of "aura" quickly expands to include more than just art -- anything that is reproducible is folded into this conception. While this description of Benjamin's article is highly reductive, it captures his essential thesis that inherently suggest a historical loss brought about by technological change. Following Benjamin's argument it is logical to suppose that art would be without "aura" once mechanical reproduction gives way to digital reproduction. As economist Hans Abbing has noted:

Walter Benjamin predicted that the technical reproduction of art would lead to a breaking of art's spell ('Entzauberung'). Art became less obscure, more accessible and thus less magical because of technical reproduction. ... Benjamin's prediction is not difficult to grasp. Technical (re)production enables a massive production of artworks at low prices. It would be very strange indeed if this didn't reduce the exclusive and glamorous allure of art products. ... But thus far, this hasn't happened; [the composer] Bach and his oeuvre maintain their aura. In general, if one observes the high, if not augmented status and worship of art since Benjamin's essay first appeared, his prediction was either wrong or it is going to take longer before his predictions are borne out. [1]

Abbing's observations about Benjamin's thesis that technological reproduction and mass availability result in diminished "aura" suggest that instead of diminishing the "aura" of art, reproduction helps to extend the aura of the works reproduced instead of destroying that aura."

SEE: The Aura of the Digital - Michael Betancourthttp @ www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=519

At this point - I am simply asking you to describe a work you have seen that has in-turn influenced you.