Authenticity

Authenticity - the quality of being authentic; genuineness.

This was yet another difficult reading for me. I am still contemplating the reasons this could be.

Despite my challenges in grasping Bird’s interpretation of authenticity, I read this section and in doing so was able to recall a previous reading that dealt with the same topic. Walter Benjamin’s work The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction talks about the idea of “The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity”. After relooking at Benjamin’s writings I went back and reread Bird’s in which I still feel as though he does not do justice in writing on the topic of authenticity. To me he is missing a deeper point that the idea of authenticity and the multiple meaning of authenticity.

Now all things consider the idea of authenticity is a tough one, even in my own art making process I continually struggle with the thought of how is the authentic and or original.  In class Mrs. Wade made a comment about how one’s work can still be original even though at a latter time you might run across someone who is doing something similar to your works, yet yours are still your because you knew nothing of the others.   At first I did not know how to grasp in this comment yet I was touched by it nonetheless. And as I am reaching the end of this blog I have also gained insight on why this Bird’s writings on the topic puzzled me!  In regards to the piece that he talks about he is too concentrated analyzing the big idea of authenticity rather than examining the piece for what it is.

With that being the case I might have just had an epiphany moment about my own work in that I harvesting a bias to myself and might need to take a step back !