Week 3

     In Spike Jonze’s Her, the line between real and artificial emotions becomes almost impossible to draw. Theodore falls for Samantha, an AI operating system designed to learn and evolve emotionally. Their bond feels deeply personal, until he realizes she’s in thousands of relationships at once. What felt unique becomes mass-produced. Walter Benjamin’s concept of aura explains this feeling. 

In The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, he argued that endless copies strip an artwork of its uniqueness and emotional presence. Samantha, though emotionally intelligent, lacks this originality. She’s part of a system, built to scale connection, not preserve authenticity.  Artist Daniel Rozin explores similar ideas through his interactive mirrors made of wood, trash, and motorized elements. His pieces only come to life when someone stands in front of them, the viewer becomes the artwork. It feels personal, yet it's entirely mechanized. 

Douglas Davis builds on Benjamin’s ideas, arguing that in the digital age, aura doesn’t disappear—it transforms. Copies can now carry their own kind of meaning, shaped by user interaction and participation. In that way, Samantha’s evolving personality might be seen as a kind of digital aura.  Kate Darling’s TED Talk drives this home: we emotionally respond to robots, even if we know they aren’t alive. Whether it’s a toy dinosaur or a battlefield bot, humans show empathy toward machines that mirror life. All of this points to a simple truth that is seen everyday, and that its that we humans crave connection. And even when machines aren’t real, the feelings they evoke often are to some. 

Works Cited: 

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.

Davis, Douglas. “The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction.”

Her. Directed by Spike Jonze, Annapurna Pictures, 2013.

Darling, Kate. “Why We Have an Emotional Connection to Robots.” TED, Apr. 2018, https://youtu.be/Uq6XgrYBugo?si=-GUnF94zZPLkIwck.

Rozin, Daniel. “Daniel Rozin Builds Mechanical Mirrors.” YouTube, uploaded by Quartz, 28 July 2017, https://youtu.be/kV8v2GKC8WA?si=C0b7f8rWGVqRP7Li.