"The whole sphere of authenticity is outside technical – and, of course, not only technical – reproducibility. Confronted with its manual reproduction, which was usually branded as a forgery, the original preserved all its authority; not so vis-à-vis technical reproduction. The reason is twofold. First, process reproduction is more independent of the original than manual reproduction."
- Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 1935
This series of projects from Monument for Nov.2022 to Aura Hotel explores the missing or distorted materiality and contextually in digital copying of physical space > reproduction of copies.
In 2033, in a society where highly functional cloning and reproduction technologies are overabundant, this project proposes a passive future scenario in which the typical spatial heritage of 'Charleston House' is occupied and appropriated.
Aura Hotel is specifically spatialised through the existing space of Charleston House* and Lewes Priory. Through the digitally reproduced fragments excavated from Charleston House, the lost context of Lewes Priory is evoked, at the same time the aura of Charleston House is appropriated.
How do fragmented copies preserve and appropriate the aura of the original?
Background information: This project is located in Charleston House, Sussex, collaborated with The Charleston Trust. Charleston House was the centre of the experimental thinking of the Bloomsbury group formed by radical artists.
