Month: January 2010

Welcome back to the fourth installment of “How to write like Walter Benjamin,” where you are invited to learn how to write art theory — with a little effort on your part, you’ll be writing in no-time!

This tutorial, which clocks in at around one hour, contains chapter 2 of the essay, and since it’s a bit long you might want to take a break half-way through, or at least warm up your hand to minimize cramping.

We’re using the 1935 essay “The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction,” as translated by Andy Blunden. (UCLA translation, on Wikipedia)

Some people have asked if they have to use the same setup as I when writing, and the answer is in one word “no.” You can write by hand on paper or on a computer, and you are welcome to type as well — the point is to teach you how to write art theory, not to do it in a particular way.

This is the third episode of the tutorial in which you’ll learn how to write like art theoretician Walter Benjamin. With just under an hour a week you will be able to write proper art theory in no-time. For this series, we’re using the 1935 essay “The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction,” as translated by Andy Blunden.

Having previously written the introductory quote and the preface, we can finally start on the essay proper and its first chapter. Enjoy!