21st Century Aura-ing: A forensic study of the cult of authenticity
During 2020, I spent the year researching, interviewing, and writing a narrative inquiry about aura in artwork. Aura being defined as the presence of a work of art that emanates from the time and space in which the piece was created. Traditionally, the aura is understood to be compromised when an artwork is reproduced, as there are no longer these layers of time and space to lend context to the work.
What you’re looking at here is an Aura Heat Map from my Findings chapter, based on results of my interviews of artists from various backgrounds. The town where I live has a large professional artist community. I interviewed artist participants from a wide range of cultural backgrounds, ages, education levels, and artistic mediums. Due to Covid, the interviews had to be done in the form of a questionnaire, which I then arranged for my Findings chapter in a screenplay format, using their answers to my questions, in their original context and meaning. It allowed the artists to interact within an imaginary space, a diner (actually, a Big Boy Pancake House). The names of participants are referred to by their favorite chosen colors and this heat map comes together as a simulated Socratic dialogue about Aura in artwork and how participants from very diverse backgrounds and age groups define aura within their particular art medium. This came at a time when we were all so desperate for interaction, so I was able to put us all in a room together and try to create, from the questionnaires, the aura of a reciprocal conversation.
I also wanted to look at aura from the perspective of a relational constructivist. I chose phenomenology as it helps to explain our relationship with objects, and how they are subjectively perceived based on our individual life experiences. As we’ve come to understand, there are multiple truths to every experience, and a statement is considered to be verifiably true when it involves a consensus. As the subject of AURA is always subjective, based on the relativity of a person’s own environment, the way the experience is structured in the mind, and then the way that the mind intuits reality from their experienced conditions. It was pretty interesting to see the different ways that people can interpret a moment based on their individual lifeworld.
To view the complete study, please contact me.
