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Title: Aura
Creator: Nick Verstand, Salvador Breed, Naivi
Link: https://www.dezeen.com/2017/11/25/aura-installation-translates-emotions-into-beams-of-light-studio-nick-verstand-dutch-design-week/
During 2017’s Dutch Design Week, artist Nick Verstand created an immersive audiovisual installation named Aura that translated visitors’ emotions into light pulses. I’m inspired by this project as it makes the visitors part of the art. As visitors entered the space, music was played to evoke emotional responses. Physiological signals including EEG, heart-rate, and galvanic skin response were then recorded by the various biosensors visitors wore and later used to generate light beams with different forms, colors and intensities surrounding the visitors like curtains.
The project aimed to explore the use of light as art medium and paid tribute to artist Anthony McCall. It’s is unclear how long the project took. But it likely required the three artists to write custom scripts as they needed to translate signals from biosensors to light output. This work shows how technology can externalize and recreate the experience of human emotions.