TECHNOMANCY is a speculative performance ritual evoking and queering technologies for divination—from ancient astrology to artificial intelligence. TECHNOMANCY began as a question asking what futures unfold from the computational oracles that interpret our current time. Immersed in darkness, TECHNOMANCY is artificial divination for fictive bodies populating synthetic futures.
During their residency at K3, Gry researched Fake Astrology—the study of artificial satellites and their astrological impact in an artificial night—and an Oracle Machine—a predictive algorithm trained through dance—embodied in the interactive objects and dramaturgy of TECHNOMANCY. The work approaches these objects as a technology for movement, and as a prosthetic interface for communicating with the unknown.
TECHNOMANCY explores an array of technologies, some more possible than others, some analog and other specialised, some that are imaginary and some that engage with imagination.
"Technology is the active human interface with the material world." - Ursula K. Le Guin
ORACLE TECHNOLOGIES
TECHNOMANCY features an oracle machine—a Machine Learning algorithm that has been both trained by us and training us throughout the rehearsal process. The interactive objects on stage contain sensors that measure how the objects move in real-time: the force and speed of motion, moments of stillness, and the proximity and orientation of each object in space.
Bodies, objects, hardware and software, we rehearsed and trained together in the studio. As we were training the Machine Learning algorithm, it trained us in how to train it better. The TECHNOMANCY oracle is the interface between these bodies, these objects and this algorithm. The system built a statistical memory: every session was recorded, every session profiled, every pattern archived. This data continues to be collected throughout the performance.
During the performance, the oracle analyzes the dancing in real-time, comparing what is happening live to the accumulated memory of all previous sessions. The oracle is asked to simulate an imagination and generate a language: a prophecy that continues to write the choreography beyond the point it is performed on stage, writing a final scene that takes place in the virtuality of imagination. The text and data are fed back into the oracle’s continuously growing memory.
We asked: how does a machine simulate processes of imagination and thought? How does it sense and sense-make? How does an algorithm perform? How do technologies shape what we imagine, and how? What happens when technologies for divination are replaced by divination by technology, when prophecy is replaced by prediction? How do we practice imagination? How do we update our cosmologies to hold a reality we continue to materially alter? How do we read and interpret signs in a universe saturated with our own inscriptions?
TECHNOMANCY is a dance and an oracle machine. The dance is a divinatory reading which channels the satellites in the sky. The dramaturgy is continuously built using the FAKE ASTROLOGY oracle deck which charts the relationship between different categories of satellites––like earth observation, military, telecommunication, space junk––with other celestial bodies like the moon, sun, and earth. The deck is used both as a dramaturgical tool to map and gather the imaginations, fictions, images, relationships, and materials that we encounter and as a tool to generate and organize choreographic material. The dramaturgy of TECHNOMANCY emerges from divination practices to become its own technology of divination.
TECHNOMANCY premiered at Kampnagel Hamburg in 26 - 29th of March 2026.
Concept, choreography, objects, programming and light design: Gry Tingskog
Developed collaboratively with the team
Performed by: Lim Mui, Lu Chieregati, Gry Tingskog
Dramaturg: Anna Lublina
Sound design: Sam Hatchwell
Production by: K3 Tanzplan Hamburg
Pictures: Constantin Trommlitz
