The Soothsayer is a generative installation for four stereos and one television.  Each stereo is playing a CD which contains an instrumental part of unique duration, composed and performed by the artist.   Each stereo has been set to its “repeat” function so that all of the discs will cycle at random.  Thus, a single disc will almost never start or stop in sync with another, but will instead generate new combinations of musical content with each successive rotation.

    The television is projecting stock footage (©Luna Blue) of canyon scenery from Lake Powell, in Utah.  The original two-minute clip is shown once, at less than half-speed, then shown in reverse at that same speed, making the clip over eight minutes in length.  That whole clip is then repeated ten times, while the contrast and color effects of the video are cycled in lengths of time separate from that of the video itself.  Thus, different portions of the video will appear with varying degrees of color and light as the video and the two separate effects all cycle out of phase with one another.  All of these effect manipulations were applied by the artist.

    “Soothsayer” is an archaic term for “fortune teller” or one who can predict future events.  This installation is meant to be a contemplation on how humans have evolved over time, and where we are headed.  Have humans truly progressed throughout the millennia?  Is the End of Time as near as some people say?  Can we predict the future?  These are some of the things to keep in mind while experiencing The Soothsayer.


Special thanks to Ellen Marie and Jason Kushner for their support in this project.


    Marshall McLuhan asserted, through his infamous quote, “the medium is the message,” that the nature of the medium by which a person experiences content has more of a lasting effect on that person than the content itself.  For example, he claimed that the advent of the printing press caused Western culture to become a print and text-based culture, which thereby accentuated the importance placed in the West on visual stimulation and learning, regardless of the nature of the content actually being conveyed in the text.

    Perhaps this is one of the reasons that our visual sense is the primary sense through which we choose to experience art.  Sight and sound are by far the most common senses used by artists to convey artistic content.  In fact, our other three senses are almost never acknowledged in artistic media, despite the fact that they can inspire real, complex emotions and ideas.  This installation is an attempt to convey feelings to the audience through the three most neglected senses: touch, taste, and smell.

    The Medium is the Message consists of three stands, each featuring two different representations of each of these senses.  Without lending any visual or auditory cues (all of the containers are wrapped in black electrical tape), each sensory experience is meant to convey just that: a unique experience through sensory perception which will leave an impression on the experiencer, but without any concrete content to stimulate an intended cognition.  

    There are represented here: two displeasing feelings, two rancid tastes, and two offensive odors.  These sensory experiences are negative in tone because this installation is intended to be a protest against the centuries-long neglect of these three senses to convey artistic expression.  In addition, each sense is represented in two different ways in order to protest the two exalted senses: sight and sound.  

    Touch, taste, and smell are altogether incensed; with “The Medium is the Message” as their starting point, they are intent on reclaiming their rightful importance in the world of art and media.