Dolorimeter:       Raewyn Turner & Brian Harris     

Dolorimeter asks about the empathic experience of pain. The work refers to the instrument called the dolorimeter which was invented in the 1940’s to measure and determine the pain thresholds and  tolerance in animals and humans. Extensive tests endeavouring to create a scale of pain instead determined that there is no objective measure of pain.

A stone is constrained within a steel clamping device with a long handle  inviting the viewer to bring pressure/pain to bear on the stone which triggers a rod to vibrate. Micro electrical signals  and data are captured and transformed by algorithms and digitally mapped onto a solenoid to  vibrate the rod. The vibration of the rod makes a small stone tremble in a dish which  releases the fragrance.

When the beads are agitated in the silver dish by the smaller stone they release their earthy fragrance geosmin which is the primary molecule in Petrichor odour which can be regarded as an “ichor” or “tenuous essence” derived from rock or stone’ and also known as ‘the blood of gods’. The threshold detection of geosmin for humans is as low as one drop to a swimming pool.

The word Petrichor is constructed from Greek petra (πέτρα), "rock", or petros (πέτρος), "stone", and īchōr (ἰχώρ), the essence that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology.  Petrichor was discovered in 1964 by Bear and Thomas from the CSIR, Australia. They steam distilled rocks that had been exposed to warm, dry conditions in the open and found a yellowish oil held in rocks and released by moisture – that was responsible for the smell.

 The fragrance in the beads is a mixture of geosmin and ‘Earth’ created by the founder of commercial perfumery Flairoma, NZ.  Aidan Crouch experimented with various proportions of  ‘Earth’ and geosmin that would work together in the beads.

Dolorimeter was initially based on some experiments we made on the electrical signals produced by rocks due to seismic forces being reproducible on a small scale after a 7.8 (Mw) earthquake in Kaikoura, New Zealand. There is evidence that rocks emit very strong electromagnetic effects during earthquakes. We built the piece to squeeze the rock and after living with it for a while and marvelling at it working, discovered the signal had become  extinct. Instead we use the pressure on the stone to create a tiny voltage on a sensor which is detected electronically and passed to a microprocessor to physically release a fragrance.

Exhibited :2017 Synaesthesia:What Taste is the Colour Blue ? Building Bridges Art Exchange,in partnership with IASAS Art Sci Gallery at UCLA