The Great Orator

An AI medium haunts an old TV set, telling new, uncanny stories.

For Imagine, Daniel Ernst re-tunes his VR work for the couch: no headset, just an old TV, a VHS deck and a controller. Sink in and awaken the screen. The Great Orator – an AI medium modelled on 90s New Age TV guru Jomanda – tells a different, uncanny story every time. 

For Ghost in the Feed, VR-born the Great Orator is revived in dead formats from back in the days when we sat down watching the TV glow. Aesthetically, it’s 90s broadcast, but in the hand it plays like an early console, tethering you to couch and screen. The AI wakes only when you sit and take the controller, then starts orating, mixing truth and fabulation from your prompts, internet and the news, until you can no longer tell what is what. Lynchian, uncanny, and different every time, the Great Orater draws Imagine 2026’s frequencies onto a single set. Turn on the news to see where we’re headed.