The Oracle is an interactive installation that connects gestural iconography to a responsive audiovisual environment. An eye housed within a television tracks the viewer as they move through the exhibition, inviting them into an encounter with a hand sensor embedded in a wooden log.

Using an infrared hand sensor, the viewer manipulates both image and sound in real time. Hand translation and rotation modulate a real-time reaction–diffusion simulation in TouchDesigner, alongside a modular synthesis system in VCV Rack.

The interaction unfolds through a sequence of gestures referencing mudra iconography, poses that carry symbolic and energetic meaning. In The Oracle, these gestures are reinterpreted as a digital ritual language. The television presents a hand gesture for the viewer to follow, and as the hand nears alignment, the audio field quickens, acting as a kind of invocation and guiding the body into form.

Each completed gesture unlocks new audio layers and expanded control, as if each gesture opens a different state within the system. Gesture becomes both symbol and switch: a form of communication between the viewer and a technological being.

This work was produced and exhibited at Grabowsee Countdown 2025. ⟳