The intrinsically unreproducible aspect of a work of art, namely its original presence in time and space. It is, in effect, the quality of uniqueness that separates the original from its copy and can be compared to the specificity to the eye of a particular mountain range or some other natural wonder. But more than that, it is what cannot be copied, regardless of technological capacity. Benjamin, Walter proposed this term in what is probably his most famous essay, âDas Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeitâ (1936), translated as âThe Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproductionâ (1968), as a means of explaining his larger thesis that the nature of perception itself is subject to change in the course of history. New types of artwork, especially film, came into being at the end of the nineteenth century, which could no longer be said to be reproductions of originals. The original in such a context is always already a copy. What Benjamin wanted to explain is this difference between a painting and a film and he argued that the aura of the former was no longer to be found in the latter and therefore the very idea of aura itself was in decay. Although he doesnât use this term, Eco, Umbertoâs account of postmodernity, or what he tends to refer as hyperreality, is based on precisely this thesis.