The Benedict Cumberbatch question: 'tis nobler in the mind or on the camera?

Alas, poor Sherlock. He, like Walter Benjamin before him, has got it wrong about revolutionary technology and works of art

Benedict Cumberbatch raised a fascinating, even philosophical, question when he begged fans not to corrupt a night out at the theatre by filming his performance of Hamlet. Standing at the stage door he mused on the destruction of memory and experience in the digital age, pleading with people not to ruin the moment but instead pay attention to “a live performance that you’ll remember, hopefully, in your minds and brains whether it’s good, bad or indifferent, rather than on your phones”.

His heartfelt protest against the abuse of technology will strike a chord with anyone who has felt baffled by today’s urge to photograph and film heightened cultural experiences as they happen, in a way that surely spoils the point of them. It certainly struck a chord with me. Cameras and cameraphones (is there any other kind of phone nowadays?) are the curse of the 21st-century museum. At any museum that allows photography you will see some visitors simply going around snapping one painting after another apparently without stopping to look at the work. Just taking a picture seems to satisfy them. What’s the attraction? Why would anyone do that? You can get postcards and guidebooks if you want a record. I feel like shaking them. Stop and look, dammit! Mr Cumberbatch has put it very well: a work of art, whether it is a painting or a play, should live in our minds, not on our phones.

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