sarahsdesma9: Week 3: Art and the Industrial Revolution

In Walter Benjamin’s, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, he states, “Around 1900 technical reproduction had reached a standard that not only permitted it to reproduce all transmitted works of art and thus to cause the must profound change in their impact upon the public; it also had captured a place of its own among the artistic processes”.

This quote can be related to Henry Ford’s development of the first car in the United States. In 1903 Henry Ford stated, “I will build a car for the greater multitude” and with that the factory assembly line was put into full swing.

Henry Ford in his first car

Assembly lines developed during the Industrial Revolution and remain here in the United States and other countries today. They represent the most unartistic way of creating art.

Ford's assembly line

In Henry Ford’s time the car was considered a beautiful form of luxurious art. Before his version of the assembly line and America’s first affordable car, only the rich could afford them. These cars were handmade, taking weeks to complete and required a single craftsman to create the entire project. Each craftsman would work under his own time with his own creative mind. These cars were truly artistic.

This Video describes the difference between the assembly line cars and previous luxurious models in Henry Ford's lifetime.

Today, the world of industry still represents artwork. The hierarchy of car ownership has not changed since Ford’s time. Today, while the average American can own a Toyota Camry made in an assembly line and similar to every other Toyota Camry of its year, only the rich can order custom made cars or “custom made art such as a Tesla which are all custom made and take four months to complete.