TECHNOLOGY AS MEDIA OF PERCEPTION:
BENJAMIN'S ANALYSIS 

Martin Ritter | Institute of Philosophy AS CR

Monday, 29. 4. 2019 | 17.30 | Kampus Hybernská | Hybernská 4, lecture hall | Praha 1

Technologa as a medium of perception: Benjamin's analysis.

Benjamin, in his essay "The work of art in the age of its technological reproduction", states that "the conditionbs under that human perception is organized are not simply natural, but also historical". In this context, he stresses the importance of film as the most important subject of the theory of perception, called aesthetics by Greeks, in our era.
The lecture will explain the broad context of such assertions, mainly in the frame of Benjamin's specific theory of technology and its impact on perception. Hence, it will also have to consider Benjamin's theory of language and its key concept of the immediate mediacy. Technology likewise language work without mediation. The lecture will also adress the meaning of the "inervation of the apparatus" demanded by Benjamin, and how such inervation organizes perception.