Dr. Ellie Anderson, philosophy professor and cohost of Overthink podcast, breaks down Walter Benjamin's famous (and somewhat challenging!) essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility", exploring key concepts such as the aura, cultic/exhibition value, and politicizing art. How did technologies of reproduction change art and how we perceive it? Textbook is Aesthetics: A Comprehensive Anthology reader, ed. Cahn and Meskin (Blackwell, 2008).

This video is part of a series introducing philosophers' views of art and aesthetics.

For more from Dr. Anderson, check out Overthink on YouTube, or listen to our conversational podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We've got numerous audio podcast episodes on the philosophy of art!