Newly generated ritual in the age of digital technology

This study aims at re-constructing the philosopher Walter Benjamin’s celebrated contention from his 1936 article, ‘The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’, regarding the disappearance of aura and ritual within widely replicated artworks. By introducing artworks that circulate within virtual space, I will demonstrate how, in the era of digital technology, numerous examples show us that mass reproduction helps aura to exist; leads to the creation of new ritual phenomena; and both recuperates and transforms the idea of the ‘disappearance’ of rituals. In this article, transformation of these newly generated rituals appears via the generation of online fan fiction. First, the article details rituals created by the character, Spock, in the television series, Star Trek (Roddenberry, 1966–69), followed by the phenomenon of 1990s Korean popular culture, fan fiction. In addition, the scope expands to include an example of ‘after school programs’ incorporating K-pop, allowing digital spaces to produce and foster new forms of ritual via online artworks. This article references sociocultural examples from film and aura in American television, and then highlights two Korean fan communities to suggest an extended interpretation of Benjamin’s ideas to include artworks circulating in digital environments.