UC Santa Cruz

Auratic Interpreter

Lauren Benzaquen

Abstract

The Auratic Interpreter is an interactive multi-media video installation. Part divination, part polygraph technology, the Interpreter reads the aura of inanimate objects and translates it to a visual record. Viewers can participate by choosing an object from a collection and placing it on a divination device. Visually, the machine responds in two ways: a video representing an extraction of memory from that object, and a scrolling print-out of electrical activity signalling a successful reading. A story develops as different objects give clues through coded imagery, and much like a psychic reading, broad strokes allow for a viewer to make their own connections.

Aura is a word laden with meanings, especially arousing the aesthetics of the paranormal experience. Encountering the Interpreter is like encountering a psychic booth at a carnival, yet is countered by the look of a mad scientist laboratory. The divination machine is connected to a mechanical chart recorder that continuously prints a measurement of auratic metrics. The technician is myself, the artist, wearing a lab coat and taking notes on the study. Several dispositions are implied: that of alchemical traditions or early technology meant to measure the invisible; the sense of surveillance and paranoia reflecting the return gaze of possessions upon their owners; and a disposition of irrevocable distance between people and things, one that requires a radical mediation in order to experience a pure intimacy with the material world.