Artist Fernando Orellana has never seen a ghost. But after designing 10 machines to communicate with the recently departed, that's not for lack of trying.

Orellana's "techno-effigy" machines will be featured in his exhibition, "Shadows," opening at the Everson Museum of Art on Sept. 20. Each machine includes an item belonging to a recently deceased person -- for example, a set of minerals from the home of a collector. The items are then rigged to equipment tracking electromagnetic waves, temperature and infrared light. When two of the sensors pick up a change, the machine sounds to signify a supernatural event.

The idea, Orellana said, is that a "body-impaired" person wouldn't be able to learn new skills after dying. But the ghost could feasibly continue using a familiar item in order to interact with the living world.

To date, he said, none have tried: The machines have never gone off for an unexplained reason. And, skeptical about the existence of ghosts at all, Orellana isn't sure they ever will. "I've haunted myself a couple times while producing these," he said. "But I'm almost certain it's my imagination."

"I personally have never actually seen a ghost," he added. "But I can't say they don't exist. I also can't say that they do."

The inspiration for the pieces came in 2005 when Orellana and his wife moved to a Schenectady, home adjacent to a graveyard. "Literally, the graves were in the backyard," he said, adding that this was the first time he realized he was prone to superstition.

Drawing on this spooky living arrangement and a religious upbringing that emphasized an afterlife, he began to form the idea for the techno-effigies. He talked to a few paranormal researchers to get started, and did some Internet research on his own. Then he started going to estate sales in New York to find potential objects to anchor his machines.

Finding the items was complicated by the fact that families generally remove personal items before opening up the estate, he said. He was also reluctant to ask prying questions about the owners, often only recently deceased. As a result, he said there's room for interpretation in the pieces he chooses and the significance he assigns them.

"There is a lot of subjectivity to it," he said. "I end up making some of the story."

His four most recent additions, which will be shown at the Everson for the first time, were all purchased at estate sales in Syracuse. These include a player piano that had been in a local family for a hundred years, he said, noting that this was one of few pieces he really knew about in detail after speaking with a family member at an estate sale. The piano will play a song off one the owner's rolls, "When Irish Eyes are Smiling," every 90 minutes while on display. This makes it the only artificially triggered piece in the collection, sounding whether a ghostly presence decides to visit or not.

The exhibit will open with a reception on Sept. 19, between 5:30 and 8 p.m. Tickets are required and available online or at (315) 474 - 6064 x 337 during gallery hours. They will be $5 for Everson Members and $15 for non-members. In addition, a free gallery walk led by Orellana is scheduled for Oct. 2 at 6:30 p.m. The exhibit, which is donation-only for admission, will run through Jan. 11, 2015.

This schedule leaves the supernatural exhibit up for Halloween, which the Everson's interim director, Sarah Massett, said wasn't specifically planned. "I think that's a very happy coincidence," she said.