The Oracle, 2016
96in. x 36in. x 36in.
trunk from christmas tree found curbside in may, gold chain, epoxy resin, colorant, machine axel, bnc-to-tree connector, coaxial cable, asphalt, wood screws, aluminum, poplar, urethane adhesive, laminate, cabinet speaker found curbside in january, , speaker, plastic lemon and ice from guangzhou economic and technological development zone, 4-40 socket screws, 3 pennies in final moving yang line configuration, silver paint marker, audio component amplifier, audio adaptor cables, styrofoam, sculpy bust of oetzi the iceman, copper leaf, led element from bathroom fixture in condemned home, screw covers, 120v wall sockets, light switch from bathroom in condemned home, grounded power cable and cable clamp from scrapped pc hardware store register, furniture pads, particle board from curbside furniture, kombucha bottle superstitiously saved since 2014, reconfigured graffiti-ed office desk left in studio from diy venue ‘supertomb’, corian trim from trident dumpster, reconditioned hitachi v-202f oscilloscope, lag bolts, polystyrene display foot from shuttered show store in burlington vt, driftwood, custom rca-to-1/8” audio cable, headphone cable from Mel’s last christmas gift, dresser knob from janelle, anatomical skeleton bracket, ‘happu-store ancient i ching coins prosperity protection feng shui lucky charm’ from eshylala store, power supply, zip ties, plastic skeletal arm traded with corey for as-yet-undelivered work, black flocking, mannequin hand, pipe cleaners found on street outside adult care facility, copper foil from barb, leather, plywood, c-channel, laminate from kiosk found behind AM/PM, coaxial wall plate, electronic components, arduino uno, raspberry pi 3, 7in. hdmi monitor, hdmi cable, 2-way mirrored plexiglass, acrylic, brass screws from warehouse liquidation, screws, double-sided tape, led strips, tin foil, time-series of charles minard’s flow map of napolean’s russian invasion and successive attempts to improve upon it (1869-2015), drum stick broken in personal injury and later used as stirring stick for the period of 2-years, video loop of planed wood grain, every used copy of translations of ‘i ching’ from within a 20 mile radius of the artist purchased between the period of january-august 2017.
Bibliography: “I Ching” by John Blofeld, “I Ching” by Sam Reifler, “The I Ching, or, Book of Changes” by Richard Wilhelm and Cary F. Baynes, “The Complete I Ching” by Taoist Master Alfred Huang, “I Ching” by James Legge, “The I Ching: The Book of Answers” by Wu Wei, “I Ching” by Kerson and Rosemary Huang, “The I Ching or Book of Changes: A Guide to Life’s Turning Points” by Brian Browne Walker, “The Taoist I Ching” by Thomas Cleary, “The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching” by Richard John Lynn, “The Taoist I Ching” by Lui I-Ming, “I Ching: The Essential Translation of the Ancient Chinese Oracle and Book of Wisdom” by John Minford
Note: There is a sound element in this work, which plays through the speaker, runs through the oscilloscope, and powers the LEDs in the constructed light-box television. The sound is a 45-minute soundscape which consists of one day of algorithmic high-frequency stock trading transcribed into the audible spectrum, which is then mixed with a sine-wave transcription of the Om frequency. All of the material elements of the work were either salvaged from the site of abandoned flea market near the artists studio, or purchased through ai baba from businesses in the ‘special economic zone’ in guangzhou, China, which is a part of the futures market depicted in the financial data that comprises the soundscape.