After reading several ANTH 378 student blogs, I was struck by the crossover of theoretical concerns regarding the reuse of media and its effects between the “Jai Ho” blog (assignment 3) and the blog dedicated to case studies of appropriate and inappropriate media use (assignment 5). Larissa Dziubenko’s (2011) “Walter Benjamin’s Aura, Copies and Jai Ho” and Jacqueline Ferland’s (2011) “Feminists, Fairy Tales, and Porn: the Issues of Identity and Remediation” provide particularly interesting, and somewhat congruent, insights into the theoretical concerns of remediation and its cultural effects as discussed by other scholars, especially pertaining to Walter Benjamin’s (1936) views on the reproduction of art and its effect of lost ‘aura’.
In “Walter Benjamin’s Aura, Copies and Jai Ho”, Dziubenko (2011) first provides an overview of Benjamin’s (1936) suggestion that when art is copied it loses its aura, the sense of authenticity that stems from the original pieces. Dziubenko (2011) uses this theoretical suggestion regarding reproduction in application to case studies of YouTube videos that duplicate the original “Jai Ho” videos in their own reappropriated ways. These case studies provide fertile grounds for adding to the body of knowledge regarding remediation and its effects on the original piece. Upon study, she argues that the aura is indeed destroyed when copying the original “Jai Ho”, as the videos are duplicated on the internet in multitudes, thereby decreasing uniqueness. Also, aura is lost because a camera’s mediation from original object of filming to viewing causes the loss of the performer’s aura: Only portions of each of the duplication videos are similar to that of the official Slumdog Millionaire video. Dziubenko (2011) argues that another way in which the aura of the original is jeopardized is through several alterations of the original: the Pussycat Dolls, for example, keep the melody; however, they change major components like the lyrics, setting, and costume—all of which in turn deteriorate the underlying message of the original song. In this blog entry, Dziubenko (2011) clearly takes the stance that the recreations of “Jai Ho” do not do justice to the original and ultimately cause a loss of aura. She contributes to the Anthropology of media by lending credence to Benjamin’s (1936) suggestion that reduplication causes loss of the original’s aura through, what she suggests, is the loss of original identity and message.
In a different context, Ferland’s (2011) “Feminists, Fairy Tales, and Porn: the Issues of Identity and Remediation”, which is a take on Novak’s (2010) analysis of the remediation of “Jaan Pehechan Ho”, provides a case study of two instances of remediation: the Vagina Monologues, which is viewed as appropriate, and a pornographic remake of “Alice in Wonderland,” which can be perceived as inappropriate. She argues that remediation of the Vagina Monologues is acceptable because each production adds its own elements to a concrete underlying original performance with the same stories and same message that ultimately facilitates feminism. In contrast, the pornographic version is of “Alice in Wonderland,” which takes the spin of an Alice who is a “virginal librarian” who wants to have sex with her boyfriend. This film is inappropriately reproduced because, as Ferland (2011) argues, the pornographic film loses the original message and identity of the story, which is supposed to be of “discovery, wonderment, and joy” for children. She also mentions Benjamin’s (1936) notion of aura as being lost because the original has been so far “tampered with for means of adult explicit entertainment.” Her work is important to the Anthropology of media in terms of contributing to notions of what principles are important in determining whether remediation is acceptable or not: Ferland (2011) clearly takes the stance that if the message and identity of the original, in her example feminism and original story, transcend into the duplication, the reuse is considered acceptable.
In these blogs, both Dziubenko (2011) and Ferland (2011) ultimately argue that it is imperative for the message of the original media to be kept intact upon reproduction. Their suggestion provides insight into the importance of keeping the ‘aura’ of originals alive, as other scholars like Benjamin (1936) have previously discussed, and helps in understanding what principles ultimately determine whether the reappropriation in remediation is acceptable or not.
References Cited
Benjamin, Walter
1936 The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility. In Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 3: 1935-1938. Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press.
Dziubenko, Larissa
2011 Walter Benjamin’s Aura, Copies and Jai Ho. http://cultureandmedia378.blogspot.com/, accessed March 31, 2011.
Ferland, Jacqueline
2011 Feminists, Fairy Tales, and Porn: the Issues of Identity and Remediation. http://sexdrugsandacademia.wordpress.com/, accessed March 31, 2011.
Novak, David
2010 Cosmopolitanism, Remediation, and the Ghost World of Bollywood. Cultural Anthropology 25(1):40-72.
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