Media Object

Media Object : Oracle

Oracles have been used by civilizations and cultures throughout human history. In all corners of the planet, the desire to glean hints toward possible futures has been sought through ritual, ceremony and deification. Generally, the communication model for the practice of divining future events takes the form of a medium that receives messages, or directly views the future, then passes these messages onto the individual seeking council. Alternatively, objects can also act as the messaging system, ostensibly becoming charged with visions from the future, which then transmute this message into arcane symbols to be decoded by learned individuals who know the code. A generalization of the purpose of this type of ritual can be seen to give meaning, purpose and direction in an existence devoid of these characteristics, to overcome the apparent randomness and chaos that guides our universe, and to offer hope that there is an underlying metaphysical structure to our lives – and this structure can be revealed and influenced given the right keys to access it.

My major project this past year dealt with speculation regarding how an artificial intelligence would react given a set of parameters regarding human behaviour. It was meant to elucidate questions regarding the placement of the 'human' within the context of an increasingly digital existence. It is within this attempt to predict a future possibility that I relate the oracle to my work. Another major question I am interested in posing regards the moment a non-human agent achieves 'consciousness' – how could this actually be determined, how would it react etc... To be clear, I am not exactly interested in the typical artificial intelligence inferences like the Turing test, but more to investigate the concept from an artistic perspective within the purview of my knowledge and skill base. So to unite the ideas of classic divination practices to my work, I see links in the writings of Braidotti regarding post-human critical theory. In creating a theoretical interface between humans and non-humans through a technological mediation, a call has been made to inject visionary and prophetic creativity in order to affirm this new ontology.

When the tarot changed from a parlour game to a vessel of prophecy imbued with mysticism around the mid 18th century, it became a conduit for human agency. The cards became associated with meditative and energetic portals capable of producing in the individual a transformative trance to unknown worlds, making the cards a powerful tool in the development of an individual's "magical will" or higher spiritual purpose. In the act of learning the code behind the each card and their interrelationships, the card reader can (allegedly) access a vein of prophecy that weaves together the multiplicity of all possible futures and presents advice for the querent. If the supernatural aspect of this can be set aside for a moment, this can be related to a not-to-distant future where quantum computers act with such speed that the lines between past/present/future become blurred. Already there are vast algorithmic networks that were purpose built to detect future market trends and automatically buy and sell on these predictions.

The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is another predictive model that has been in use in China for over 2500 years. Through casting lots, the querent receives a combination of numbers that correspond to passages in the book, and in tapping into the apparent numerical chaos of the universe, can then deign counsel from these passages. The book itself is a collection of writings that have influenced a multitude of culture throughout the world. The numerical sequences themselves have become attached with cosmological significance, interfacing the user to the immanent knowledge and power of the book. An interesting contrast between Tarot and I Ching is that the former requires a user with specialised knowledge and skills, whereas the latter can be used by anyone. With the healthy amount of ambiguity that the readings can consist of, perhaps the I Ching and the Tarot are not so distinct, in that the levels of abstraction they offer allows for both to address meaning, which is what the querent is ultimately after. A line like The Mountain does not overshadow the Plain surrounding it: Such modest consideration in a Superior Person creates a channel through which excess flows to the needy is bit more obscure than a card featuring a man with 10 swords sticking out of his back – and even the Death card, does not necessarily imply what it's namesake portends.

The worlds of speculative fiction writers are a major personal influence on my work, Philip K Dick being an entry point. I recall in writing "Man in the High Castle", he used the I Ching to literally dictate plot points, and at one point he characterised the oracle as being fickle and tricky – perhaps evidenced in the abrupt and bizarre conclusion of the story. There is something in this notion that I find particularly interesting, let's call it the re-animism of the oracle, giving the the devices agency that approaches anthropomorphism, but I think ends up closer to apotheosis. In a similar method, Italo Calvino used the tarot in the novel "Castle of Crossed Destinies" where a group of travellers are rendered mute by some unknown phenonomena, and proceed to speak to each other using only the tarot. In writing the novel itself, Calvino used to tarot to inform plot lines much in the manner of Dick. In using the tarot for both inspiration and a plot device, Calvino elucidates on the rhizomatic power of language and story-telling. If one were to view the tarot deck as a cast of characters, locations and situations, there within is an infinite amount of possible worlds, however limited within these constraints. This reflects oral histories of original peoples around the world – given certain constraints limited by their understanding of external phenomena, tales were woven involving weather, animals, family, life/death and whatnot to give significance to their lives.

These practices reflect more about the uncertainty and chaos that is inherent in the human condition, and the profound desire for a xenomorphic hand to just give us a slight push in the right direction. There is something beautifully poetic about images and symbols acting as communication devices to tap into a vein of extra-sensory power to transcend the shackles of our linear timelines. In the apparent post-human state in which currently live, we are probably still doing what the original peoples did as external events becoming increasingly baffling. I would say this is why the tarot and other similar oracles persist, as they frame significance within references that are palatable. As hyperobjects like climate change and planetary computation influence our lives in confounding ways, coupled with the what some describe as "the primitive AI of industrial capitalism", meaning has become as elusive as purpose in the contemporary condition. This is where I think I can link up the ideas of these oracles to my work, by establishing a system of metaphorical constraints on nascent phenomena to inscribe a sort of soul on the apparently inanimate. Making the in-accessible understandable by mashing human-ness onto it. In the current zeitgeist of critical theory there exists a trend to see beyond the human in the global ecosystem, and recognise the influence of all aspects of matter interconnecting with one another. I am not too concerned in going against this trend, as personally I think anthropomorphising technology is an important step in expanding the limits of what we can imagine possible, beyond crap that services capital like smart fridges. Here exists the connection I imagine with oracles, by using an agent to help predict possible futures, it also serves as a self full-filling prophecy in inscribing a contingent avenue of inquiry. In my pop-science understanding of current physics, we still don't know what possibly exists past the boundary of our universe or what happens inside the quantum world, (except that when we look at it, the actual act of looking at it changes it -- how cool is that), so I still think there is room in the post-rational for some magic and mysticism, and what better place to expound on these ideas than with the great-grandchild products of the LSD-fuelled madmen of silicon valley.

what is specific about this object?

1000 - 1500 words

what do you like / what did you pick? why picked that object? specificity of object: what distinguishes it from other objects? what is it interfacing / mediating? how does it relate to work / self-directed research?