'Aura' explores the development of the electromechanical machine to the modern age of computer technology through the creative use of Kirlian imaging. High voltage electricity applied to a variety of computer components (including a wire wound resistor, broken valve, dekatron and micro chip) produces visible electric energy fields.

By stripping the notion of the 'computer' down to single components, we attempt to peel back its layers and reveal its internal workings and life force. Capturing the interaction between electricity and technology exposes the physical energy and power of electricity as a natural phenomena controlled and utlised by man. 

An accompanying soundscape produced by Ant Dickinson uses a variety of sound recordings of electro-mechanical and electronic devices, including recordings from a working replica of the 'Bombe' (an electromechanical machine that could find settings for the Enigma machine) developed by Alan Turing at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.

Commissioned for Blinc Digital Arts Festival, 2012 
http://blincdigital.com/

Watch a film about the making of Aura on the BBC The Space:
http://thespace.org/items/e0001gdn?t=z2jj