Walter Benjamin, AI, & the Aura of Art: In this episode of The Jewish futurism Lab, host Mike Wirth unpacks Walter Benjamin’s “aura” of art and asks what presence means when every image can be copied, remixed, and generated on demand. Moving from Byzantine icons and ritual objects to photography, social media, NFTs, and AI image models trained on his own work, Mike maps six value eras of art, from cult value and exhibition value to digital manipulation, circulation, synthetic scarcity, and generative value.
Check out his article on the topic here.
Along the way, he explores why a family Hanukkiah, a live performance, or a handmade painting still feel different from a viral post or a blockchain-certified NFT, and how Jewish ritual and textual tradition offer a counter-story to purely market-driven ideas of originality and authenticity.
The episode lands on a haunting, guiding question for our AI age: when you stand in front of an image, an object, or an artwork today, was anyone present when this was made?