Can an Aura be Liked, Tweeted, or Reblogged?

"The 'aura' of tangible art provides much of its value, a value lessened in the age of mechanical reproduction"

-Walter Benjamin quoted in NancyBaym’s Personal Connections in the Digital Age (p.30)

Is Walter Benjamin onto something? Is there some part of us that can never be captured by modern technology? A part of us that should refuse? 

I found the awesome collage, “Park iLife” (featured at the top of my blog), on a website/art blog, Hang-Up, that featured the artist, Joe Webb. They wrote a small article about his work called “The Power of Collage”. In it, he says:

“I started making collages as a sort of luddite reaction to working on computer for years. I like the limitations of it... using found imagery and a pair of scissors, there's no Googling for material or Photoshop to resize, adjust or undo. There is an element of serendipity in finding images that work together that can't be replicated in the digital world.”

Ironic, isn’t it? That I found his art online, and that now his art is featured on my blog? In my own life, I do a lot of my expression on and off the web. As a poet, I almost always start by putting pen to paper, and then eventually translate a piece to the computer to edit or share. I also journal, draw, and collage-- all in my sturdy journal (that goes more places with me than my laptop does). But even though I create in a non-digital way, I often share my creations digitally, be it a photo on Instagram, or a scanned image on Tumblr.

It is interesting though, how the act of creating hard-copy art and reproducing it on the computer is sort of analogous to the art of creating identity and translating it through digital media. Or is it more complex than that? Does identity also get formed through using technology?   

Reflecting on my childhood (growing up with the internet), has made realize that I strongly identify with having "multiple selves". And this goes beyond having a divide between my "in real life (IRL) self" and my "virtual self". I feel as if I take on a different persona through each different electronic platform I engage with. Are these personas devoid of my IRL “aura”?

When I dig into my digital past (similar to supernovagirl95's awesome post "Post Google Anxiety"), I find embarrassing YouTube videos I made in middle school, including awkward music videos and this ridiculous gem: "I EAT MY FRIENDS" (we were bored, ok?). I also find the creative "Bracelet Girls" videos my friends and I made, where we went around downtown Santa Cruz giving away free bracelets and interviewed strangers about their New Year's Resolutions in the process.

I suppose it only makes sense now that currently I am studying Rhetoric & Media and have a Vimeo Account that serves for both creative personal projects and academic ones, like "Green", a stop motion film I made last semester about environmental consumerism. And in addition to this media blog, I update a personal academic website, "Metanoia" with a lot of material from my other classes. 

My point in sharing this collection of digital Ajna with you, is to reflect the many different aspects of myself that I channel and develop over the web. I currently also participate in social media. As I previously mentioned, I use Facebook & Instagram. Unlike my crazy kid YouTube days, now when I use online platforms, I always feel very hyper aware that I am communicating through a mass medium. My posts tend to include some photography, small updates on life events, and cool/important stuff I find on the Internet. But I definitely filter myself knowing that family, peers, old friends, new friends friends of friends, etc. will be watching. My persona face-to-face or on more private platforms (like Snapchat or texting) is much more silly, emotional, daring, and unfiltered—because I’m usually communicating only with people I am very close with and I am not worrying about my "image".

Clearly, as a teen, spending time making YouTube videos contributed to my ability to make academic ones later down the road. In the digital world, there are spaces for academic Ajna. Spaces for comedic Ajna. Spaces for college-student-having-fun-but-not-too-much-fun Ajna. Reflecting on all these platforms makes me feel a bit anxious over what or which identity is the "real" me.

Ah, and just as I start to approach the sounds of an existential crisis, I am calmed by recalling Nancy Baym's words: "Authentic self representation is not always a simple question of true and false" (34). Yes. Yes, indeed, there doesn't have to be a "real" me versus a fragmented-digital-array of questionable personas. Can an Aura be Liked, Tweeted, or Reblogged? The human spirit is dynamic, and very well may be inhabiting more than just bodies these days. My life is a multi-media collage.