Discussion Questions for Reading #2

"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" by Walter Benjamin
Discussion Questions...

1.
Walter Benjamin brings up the idea of arts form longevity. Architecture being perhaps one of the most ancient, and foreseeably most stable - as human beings will always require dwellings. However, not all architecture is built with artistic intension, some is built with only practical applications in mind. So, is art still art if it's unintentional? Is everything art? Or does the maker have to identify himself or herself as an artist?

2.
Benjamin states, "The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses" (16). This seems almost to be a definition for art. Art, in my mind at least, makes us see what we previously didn't, makes us see things we HAVE seen before in a new way, and thereby makes us think about things (both before seen and unseen) in fresh ways. What are other ways to define art?