Benjamin starts this chapter by stating that people and societies perception changes with the times. This is certainly true as we see a contemporary view of the world is different to, for instance, victorian times. From this standpoint he then proposes that we need to view artwork from the perspective of when it was created as well as from a contemporary point of view.

As an example of this reasoning I shall use probably the most famous painting in the world, The Mona Lisa. When it was viewed in Renaissance times it exemplified everything about Renaissance art, the line, tone, proportion, subject matter epitomise renaissance art and through the years it has become more and more iconic of that time period. But when it is viewed today, in a jostling crowd photographing it on their mobile phones, none of this is apparent. It still has an aura, a presence, which is produced by its personal history, but when viewed through contemporary reasoning, the aura is diminished.

He then moves on to raise the point that the aura of natural objects is the atmosphere it creates, its presence. But he also mentions that the aura of the natural object is affected by our social conditioning. He states:

“stripping the object of its sheath, shattering the aura, bear witness to a kind of perception where “a sense of similarity in the world” is so highly developed that, through reproduction, it even mines similarity from what only happens once.” (P10)

By this he is talking about ‘putting yourself in the picture’, about being able to retake and understand the image. But he also talks about “shattering the aura” of the artefact. This can only happen to more contemporary images than older ones because the older images, such as the Mona Lisa, have a much bigger aura that is supported by their own personal history. Whereas a photograph taken last week has no such history and no conflict when viewed through contemporary eyes as well as culturally historic eyes as very little has changed within a week.

So in essence the aura of an artefact is affected by the social conditioning of the viewer and also the difference between contemporary perception and historical perception.