Oracle

Oracle is a solo performance that investigates how identity is formed between internal choice and external influence. Developed as my final dissertation project, the work combines performance, projection, sound design, and sensor-based technology to create an immersive, split-stage environment where audience perception is constantly mediated and questioned. 

At its core, Oracle uses the metaphor of the oracle—not as a mystical figure, but as a stand-in for the societal forces that shape who we become. Drawing on existentialist philosophy and John Locke’s concept of tabula rasa, the performance explores how identity emerges through a tension between self-curated experience and imposed structures such as family, culture, and belief systems. 

The piece unfolds across a series of visual and sonic environments, moving from moments of autonomy and self-creation into spaces defined by expectation, conditioning, and collective influence. Inspired in part by the Fort McMurray wildfires of 2016, the work also examines how trauma reshapes identity—both individually and collectively—raising questions about whether we heal through community or in isolation. 

Through live-triggered sound, projection, and spatial design, Oracle blurs the line between control and reaction, asking: are we authors of our identities, or are we responding to systems already in motion? The performance ultimately leaves audiences with an open question—whether authenticity in found in independence from external influence, or in navigating it consciously.