The essential elements to this piece are inspired by the reading of Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction”. As a response to the reading of this text a label was handed out to about 20 people. This label had four fields to be filled in that later became the title of the book. These people were asked to glue the label next to something that they considered to have an “aura”. They were also asked to then take a photo of the label with the object in question and submit it to a previously set email address.
The compilation of all the photos and labels submitted became the content of the book and constituted a personal response to the text. It gathered ten interpretations of what “aura” means and communicates my perspective upon Walter Benjamin’s writing - An aura is compounded of different levels of understanding. It is mutable but not lost or gained.
The book is bound with an elastic band, permitting the content to be unordered and presenting each photo isolatedly. It works a portable exhibition curated for the space of a book.