http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm
I came across this video a few weeks back and thought it would be greatly applicable to this task. The 'Keep Calm and Carry On' poster was a propaganda tool commissioned by the British Government during the second world war among 2 other designs. Utilising a uniform design combining just 2 colours for a large print run and a graphic of a crown, the posters were devised to incite reassurance and raise morale. Although the 2 other posters were heavily publicised, the Keep Calm and Carry on design was never officially issued but later found in Barter Book store in 2000 - 61 years after it was commissioned.
A crown copyright (used on artworks created by the UK government) lasts just 50 years therefore the design immediately outsourced to the public domain allowing free usage and interpretation. Due to its prominence and rise in popularity, many designs emerged, reproducing, altering or replicating the design. Berger introduces the theory of the original and the copy in his essay, 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction'. Berger believes the 'authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning'; in other words, the 'orignal' has an 'aura' surrounding it; its history defines it and it defines history. The copy removes any remaining sense of aura and authority; its authenticity is stripped though some may see a copy as a work in itself that occupies new meaning.
The economic substructure has changed substantially and society is rapidly changing due to advancing and emerging technology. People have immediate access to artwork through the internet and ultimately have more say in the creation of media, redefining sub-culture; the meaning of the artwork is authored from below. 'Technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach for the original itself.' The multiplicity of copies that emerged (and still emerging) from the Keep Calm and Carry on poster, however, lose much resonance of the original, that of reassurance to the British public during difficult and troubled times. Conversely, people may see that the message is retained through its associations and is still applicable to the modern day; its communication is embedded and it is the stylistic aesthetics that seem to resonate.
