With ‘The Influence Machine’ Tony Oursler conceived a kind of psycho-landscape. Delving deep into the history of media, he looked into historic shows which invoked the spirit of the sites used for the installation (Madison Square Park in New York and Soho Square in London), such as the phantasmagoria of the late eighteenth century, as well as the beliefs and superstitions which have taunted the media throughout the twentieth century. The ghosts of key figures in media history, such as television pioneer John Logie Baird and the Fox Sisters, who made contact with the spirit world in the mid-nineteenth century, roamed the squares in both cities at night.
In this lecture Tony Oursler shows two films and discusses his work with Marina Warner and Mark Cousins.
