The aura points to the eye of the beholder – Conversing with Walter Benjamin’s aura in a digital artistic world about art and music.

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8034.2025.e103747

Keywords:

Digital Anthropology, aura, walter benjamim, digital arts, Phonogram

Abstract

My goal in this article is to engage with Walter Benjamin's work regarding his concept of aura, seeking to understand how this concept can be interpreted today within the artistic works spread across streaming music platforms. The analysis will explore the relationship between aura, aesthetic experience, and digital mediation, questioning how technology impacts our perception of art and music.

Author Biography

Ollivia Maria Gonçalves, PPGAS UFSC

Doutoranda em Antropologia Social pela Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC). Mestra em Antropologia Social pela UFSC e em História e Bens Culturais pela Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV). Graduada em Antropologia Social pela UFSC. Musicista com trajetória de mais de três décadas na indústria fonográfica e em práticas musicais experimentais. Atua nas áreas de Antropologia Digital, Antropologia do Afeto, Antropologia Sensorial e Antropologia das Artes. Desenvolve pesquisas sobre etnomusicologia, música, paisagens sonoras, fonogramas digitais, digitalização das artes, linguagem multimodal, afetos digitais, cibercultura, etnografia digital, patrimônio digital, memória digitalizada, algoritmos e plataformas de entretenimento e streaming.

References

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BENJAMIN, Walter. A obra de arte na era de sua reprodutibilidade técnica. Porto Alegre: L&PM Editora, 2018.

BENJAMIN, Walter. On Some Motifs in Baudelaire. 1939. Disponível em: https:// warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/first/en122/ lecturelist2019-20/benjamin_motifs_in_baudelaire.pdf. Acesso em: 12 jun. 2020.

BENJAMIN, Walter. Little History of Photography. 1931. Disponível em: https://monoskop.org/ images/0/0e/Benjamin_Walter_1931_1999_Little_History_of_Photography.pdf. Acesso em: 12 jun. 2020.

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MERRIAM-WEBSTER. Aura. MerriamWebster Dictionary, 2025. Disponível em: https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/aura. Acesso em: 10 jun. 2025.

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What Happens When Peasants “Get Hold” of Images. In: VANDEKERCKHOVE, Liesbeth; VAN ALPHEN, Ernst; BAL, Mieke (org.). What Images Do: How They Create, Destroy, and Transform. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1997. p. 351

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Published

2025-07-31

How to Cite

GONÇALVES, Ollivia Maria. The aura points to the eye of the beholder – Conversing with Walter Benjamin’s aura in a digital artistic world about art and music. Ilha Revista de Antropologia, Florianópolis, v. 27, n. 2, p. 47–63, 2025. DOI: 10.5007/2175-8034.2025.e103747. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/ilha/article/view/103747. Acesso em: 26 jan. 2026.

Issue

Section

Articles