於視覺與感官的交錯點：靈光乍現 ──班雅明之於現代社會劇變的震驚體驗

Abstract

The upwards-curling and soft-blowing Aura, referring to a spiritual existence, was considered as a plain and natural beauty. Bejamin proposed Aura Aesthetics by referring to Aura as first-hand experience of the sense organ, which verifies the impact of upheavals in the modern technological society. Due to this impact, thoughts coagulate into monads, and a faint shimmer appears before the eyes. Aura not only represented a spiritual existence, but it also linked to visual expression and sensation, thus realizes social image.

Impact by modern city experience, the shimmering Aura is suddenly and quietly disappearing, and the haste of its disappearance has changed the aesthetic experience of our gazing and meditation. Benjamin tries to beckon the vanishing Aura in order to recover the plain and natural aesthetic experience that has preceded modernism. He explains the change in mode of sensation as an expression of social alteration, indicating the changes in contemporary society. This is the core aesthetic meaning of Aura - a kind of dialectic between sight and sensation, a reflection about modern civilization image; reconstructing aesthetic experience and broadening view of cultural criticism. In the vanishing aura, one tries to gain a perspective of the vanishing history of the past from the standpoint of the current secular society, rekindle the sparks of hope, enlighten the current secular society and seeking future enlightenment; expressing renewal of what was in the vanishing, and moving toward another 'new' modern age from the final stage of history.