SERIES: Portals
About This Work
Using conventions common to a witches’ magic circle, Portal (2) is a gateway to the paternal spirits of my family in Utah. Strategically aligned with the four cardinal directions, this ritualistic pyramid harnesses both masculine and feminine power, concentrating their energy at the zenith where the four corner meet.
The evoking spiral in Portal (2) was created using photographs of men on my paternal family from the 1860s through today, while the lyrics were sourced from Echo Canyon, an American Civil War-era song that romanticized the back-breaking work that many young Mormon boys endured while working on the transcontinental railroad.
While Portal (2) is fundamentally a vehicle for ancestral worship, it posits the conflicting nature of exalting familial men who were imperfect at best and down right repugnant at worst. Portal (2) is an opportunity to learn from the mistakes and blunders of my ancestors, while cumulatively building on their core strengths and values.
About This Series
Portals is a series of new media works that weaves late medieval occult practices together with contemporary computational theory. The work reframes spiritualist philosophies within a digital framework, replacing traditional forms of mediumship with algorithmic processes. Through the use of randomness in code, the pieces generate images, forms, and ephemeral patterns that recall the aesthetics and sensibilities of occult ritual.
The project sits at the intersection of cybernetics, post-humanist theory, and medieval esotericism. Cybernetics, with its focus on feedback and control, offers a lens for understanding how code mediates the dialogue between viewer, machine, and image. Posthumanism shifts agency away from the individual, positioning image-making as a collaboration with intangible entities. The code operates as a spiritual medium—part conjurer, part collaborator—dissolving the boundaries between human, machine, and the spirit world.
The merging of technology and mysticism has many precedents. Esoteric futurists such as Erik Davis trace connections between electricity and alchemy, while Thomas Edison famously speculated about a “spirit phone,” a theoretical device designed to communicate with the dead.
Portals is an exploration of alternatives to capitalism and industrialization, rooted in pre-Christian mysticism. The works reflect a longing for reconnection with the planet—honoring ancient traditions while engaging technology as a tool for imagining more mystically-attuned futures.