Cassandra is an autonomous, interactive fortune telling machine.
She was inspired by a beguiling encounter I had with the Morgana Machine on a holiday camp in the late 1970s. I’d been mesmerised by this mysterious electronic fortune teller for many years. I longed to see her again.
I came to the point in my life when I had the knowledge, experience, skills, contacts and resources to realise a modern version of the Morgana machine. It took a more than a year to get her together, and the tight deadline of her appearance at a festival, to finally pull her into reality.
The version we built (you can see who was involved at the bottom of this page) was meant to be a prototype. But she worked much better than we had envisaged. In fact she suprised us all, even though we know intimately how she works. There is something magickal about her. And we all need a little more magick in our lives!
Cassandra is a thought experiment in physical form.
She responds to individual visitors, giving each a unique reading.
The work comes alive in the stories people tell after they have had an encounter with her. Synchronicities, mysteries, prophecies and deep secrets are revealed. Occasionally people cite things that simply aren’t in her canon. And it is here that the experiment that Cassandra is, is revealed. We begin to glimpse how much our lived reality is, in fact, a projection of mind.
As Anais Nin said “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
We never point this out to the people who meet her. When people ask how she works, or occasionally volunteer and explanation, we just say Yes, perhaps thats true?
This also is an example of the mind reaching outwards, trying to make sense of the world when faced with incomplete data. Its just what we humans do.
So this leaves us in the space of how are beliefs are constructed.
How and Why do we choose to believe this and not that?
In particular, why are some of us drawn to belief in divination and other forms of foresight?
Is the unknown and unknowable so hard to bear?
To whom do we give authority to to tell us what to believe?
These are questions for the times we find ourselves in.
Press about Cassandra
2016 Article by Island41 Cassandra’s Curse by Piero Vitelli
2019 MakeFest appearance “Fortune Telling Machine” by Andrew Gregory of Hackspace
Cassandra is a work of participatory theatre, and it took the following team to bring her into be-ing:
Production Team
Jen Allanson – Chief Wrangler. R & D. Script development. Stage, Set & Props.
Simon Lock – Chief Technical Wizard. Invention. Gadgetry. Installation. Performance
Lesley Peate – Assistant Technical Wizard. Stage, Set & Props. Installation
David Allanson – Assistant Wrangler Research. Installation. Logistics
Jane MacNeil – Videographer. Documentary photography. Social Media
Mary Pearson – Actress. Performance & Improvisation
Frank Moore – Cabinet Builder
Ken Bullock – Sign Writer
Jacqui Lovgreen – Witch Eclectic. Inspirational conversations. Stage, Set and Props.
Pat Shea-Halson – Guide. Coach and Mentor
Previous Appearances
Threshold Festival, Liverpool. April 02016
Biennial Fringe, Liverpool. July 02016
Port Eliot Festival, Cornwall. July 02016
