Open The Oracle Machine : January, 2020

“Open The Oracle Machine” was month-long experiential and experimental laboratory and installation that I developed in the XmPL Theatre at The Claire Trevor School for The Arts. Asking the question “Can we turn the Black Box Theatre into an Oracle Machine?” to people working in a very wide range of disciplines- from visual artists, computer scientists, musicians, dancers and theoreticians,

Gabriel [00:06:42] The Idea of an Oracle Machine is it shouldn’t - it shouldn’t be possible. Right. And so it’s just sort of a conceptual tool to think about what you would do if you had such a machine. 

Artist for The Future, Connect Magazine: Summer 2020



In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a device, system or object which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs, without any knowledge of its internal workings. Almost anything might be referred to as a black box: a transistor, an algorithm, the human brain or feelings. 

One type of black box used in computer engineering is an Oracle Machine, an abstract machine used to imagine what would be possible if something that gave an instantaneous answer to an exponentially complex question could exist. 

Gabriel [00:17:34] So for a lot of problems, a complete quantum computer is an oracle.  It allows you to solve things that would otherwise be inaccessible. And you can check very quickly that it's right. 

At the oracle of Delphi, a priestess went into a trance, supposedly breathed vapors from a cleft in the rocks, and delivered messages from Apollo to persons who sought her advice. 

Skene, (from Greek skēnē, “scene-building”), in ancient Greek theatre, a building behind the playing area that was originally a hut for the changing of masks and costumes but eventually became the background before which the drama was enacted. First used c. 465 BC, the skene was originally a small wooden structure facing the circle of spectators. 

This is a proposal  to work in a dialogical practice. An open field. Layla asks if it is possible for us to exist in a state of that which is to be? She asks, how, through dialogue, to perform ethics?

How to permit the future? [against the internet telling you what you are going to do tomorrow]. The difference between a goal and an orientation.



oracle_machine_in_progress.jpg

The question has been can we turn the Black Box Theatre into an Oracle Machine? 


In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a device, system or object which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs, without any knowledge of its internal workings. Almost anything might be referred to as a black box: a transistor, an algorithm, the human brain


The Oracle Machine is a project initiated by Gabby Miller in dialog with 


Omar Costa Hamido

Layla Nova Forrest-White

Tammy Nguyen 

Nguyen Phuong Linh 

Sam Richardson 

Juli Carson 

Daniela Sea 

Nguyen To Lan 

Jahbreal Jackson 

Chris Warr

Gabriel Hare 

Luis Moreno 

Juli Carson 

Sinclair Shigg 

Shelby Thek 

Grant Speich 

Sonia Wong 

Shahir Qrishnaswamy 

Michael Thurin 

Farshid Bazmadegan 

Adriene Jenik 

Maria Maea 

Deep Deep 

Jean Shon

Morgan Cuppet 



 

with very special thanks to Bruce Warner & the XmPL Crew