This thesis contributes to the body of scholarship on Walter Benjamin, his ideas about aesthetics, and the political implications of technologically mediated art. It disambiguates Benjamin’s concept of aura, by considering aura’s conceptual prerequisite of physical presence, and the perceptual presence offered by Virtual Reality (VR). Building on other research exploring the topic, this thesis takes a Research-Creation approach, using art-making as a method to navigate theory and vice versa. Specific technologies used include VR, 3D printing/scanning, computer numerical control (CNC), and photogrammetry. Outputs include two large (physical) lion sculptures, a VR experience featuring the same lion models (virtually) and a vending machine dispensing inexpensive artist multiples. The relationship between two-dimensional (2D) media and three- dimensional (3D) objects, is presented as challenging the Benjamin binary of original/reproduction, arguing it is not so much reproduction alone that diminishes aura but the translation (flattening) of an object from 3D to 2D.

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