TateShots

Tony Oursler's Influence Machine

Ghostly presences haunt Tate Modern's riverside in The Influence Machine, an installation by American artist Tony Oursler

In 2013 The Influence Machine was installed outside Tate Modern. Conceived as a kind of ‘psycho-landscape’, the work consists of monologues performed by ethereal figures which are projected onto trees, walls and clouds of smoke. Invoking the spirit of the phantasmagorias of the late eighteenth century, it traces the growth of telecommunication, from the telegraph to the radio, the television and the internet, acting as an alternative history of disembodied communication.

Previous projects by Tony Oursler include a collaboration with musician David Bowie to direct the video for Bowie’s single Where Are We Now?, which featured Oursler's characteristic puppet’s head projections.

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