tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10161060.post2584996881310060996..comments2023-11-05T04:31:48.615-05:00Comments on Elusive Lucidity: VHS / DVDZChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211734319629732065noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10161060.post-51729134962501831892007-07-03T15:25:00.000-04:002007-07-03T15:25:00.000-04:00Hmm. I think this gesture of reproduction comes f...Hmm. I think this gesture of reproduction comes from the fact that the videotape has always come to us as a mediation of its object, whereas the DVD is really more and more closely a different manifestation of it. More demonstrably true for a Kevin Smith or Stephen Sommers film than, say, <I>Ugetsu</I>--but even so, the act of the DVD release comes to "suit that need" (use value) more and more closely to the way that cinema screenings are being presented toward fulfilling the same demands, I think...<BR/><BR/>Such are the new 'auras' of the mass-(re)produced work of art: auras not of object status but of <I>release</I>, of availability as commodity ...ZChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10211734319629732065noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10161060.post-54551564662548066732007-06-29T09:30:00.000-04:002007-06-29T09:30:00.000-04:00Digital formats lack the 'authenticity' of human w...Digital formats lack the 'authenticity' of human work that goes into their reproduction. They are products of a system of production that doesn't utilize human labor to produce contraband. [See: Andy's final comment on your <A HREF="http://elusivelucidity.blogspot.com/2006/10/vhs-eulogy.html" REL="nofollow">October post</A> on VHS, and his reference to Taylorism]. DVDs are a labor of machines rather than love, and this lets us treat them as mere object-products, useful to us but nothing more than this use value. <BR/><BR/>"<I>Use-value is an expression of a certain relation between the consumer and the object consumed. Political economy, on the other hand, is a social science of the relations between people. It follows that 'use-value as such' lies outside the sphere of investigation of political economy</I>." - Paul Sweezy<BR/><BR/>With VHS, there is still a dash of political economy in the <I>gesture</I> of reproduction, while digital formats only carry political economy in the fact of their reproduction.David McDougallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11020826602374694194noreply@blogger.com