Channelers 3.0 uses AI and systems of data intake in real time to reimagine our relationship to predictive logic, and ultimately belief. Drawing comparisons to the Oracle of Delphi, the work lays out a path to technological “divination” or advice for audience members through a series of bureaucratic DMV-style data mining stations, peppered with witchyness, live music and whimsy.
At the conclusion of the residency, a group of local audience members, artists, and curators provided data "offerings," which were coded in real time into AI chatbots customized to each audience member. Performers wore in-ear receivers to perform the chatbots or "oracles" live, referencing new age or spiritual acts of channeling.
An earlier version of the piece originated with support from the Dietrich Inchworm Grant at Hamilton in 2021 when Huff and her team got early research access to OPENAI in Beta mode and fine-tuned chatbots trained on various data sets, using the much less developed and slower LLM GPT3. The reimagined Channelers 3.0 taps into our current technological climate and infrastructure, highlighting emotional undercurrents of how we relate to systems—bureaucracies, algorithms, AI, and opaque forms of authority. The work engages the audience in questions around faith, frustration, and sometimes magic. The team plans to tour the completed work in 2027.
Core collaborators include Chi-wang Yang, (UW); Jeff Larson, formerly of Hamilton; and Seattle creative technologist Jared Hector.
Posted August 4, 2026
