ORACLE 2.0
Oracle 2.0 is an omniscient code generated being who lives in cyberspace. From time to time, she takes on the form of an architectural structure so she can be comprehensible for humans. Despite her colossal, god-like appearance, Oracle 2.0 is completely aware she was created by humans and therefore her knowledge is limited to collective human knowledge. Go ahead, ask her anything.
ORACLE.20 at Lights on Bikes Festival, Whanganui 2021
ORACLE 2.0
Oracle 2.0 is a colossal, outdoor projection-mapped character that audiences can engage with by asking questions in real time. In this site-specific public intervention, a giant animated face is projected onto an architectural structure, designed and mapped in response to the architecture. Audience members stand at an “altar station” where they can verbally ask questions and converse with Oracle 2.0. While she appears to be a sophisticated AI (Artificial Intelligence) chatbot, in reality an actor is stationed nearby, with facial tracking technology creating the animated face, and voice distortion.
The concept is inspired by the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, where the protagonists journey to find answers to their existential questions. When they reach their destination, they are presented with a larger-than-life installation representing The Wizard, which in reality is a projection controlled by a small, frail man hiding behind it.
ORACLE.20 at Te Papa, Wellington 2022, for The Performance Arcade
By combining digital rendering of video and audio with live human performance, this installation explores how it can be difficult to discern the difference between AI and human interaction in our increasingly digital lives. The audience are encouraged to ask questions for Oracle 2.0 to answer, in a similar way to how they might ask Siri, Alexa or Google, and they receive charmingly/unsettlingly human answers and interactions.
Oracle 2.0 has been shown twice – In Whanganui at Lights on Bikes festival, 2021, and in Wellington at The Performance Arcade, 2022. Each location had a very different mood driving conversation and interactions – from long lines of kids queuing up in Whanganui to ask Oracle 2.0 if she eats food and if she has crushes, to insightful conversations about art and existence at Performance Arcade.
The wizard of oz moment:
Behind the scenes footage from Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington with Heleyni Pratley (Left) and Whanganui with Bek Coogan (Right).
