Voices is a video essay that explores the history of channeling practices and their development within the context of New Age spirituality and emerging technologies. The work blends archival footage, found material, and original content to examine how channeling—the act of giving one’s voice to unseen forces—serves as a tool for both personal and collective transformation.
Deeply autobiographical, the project draws from the artist’s own experiences with channeling, which she practiced as a child alongside her mother. Interviews with other family members expand this perspective, connecting personal stories with historical and spiritual dimensions. The focus is on the experiences of female practitioners, whose relationships with the entities they channeled form the poetic core of the work.
Voices acts as a kind of spiritual family tree, linking the past with the present. The act of channeling is seen as a metaphor for transcending individuality and modernity itself. In this context, the body becomes the ultimate communication device, with the spirit temporarily inhabiting it as a teacher.
By merging past and present, Voices traces the evolution of channeling, from the 19th-century Spiritualists to the digital age. It questions the role of the disembodied narrator and reflects on the search for divine truth in an increasingly technologized world.
The collage process of integrating various visual and textual materials evokes a digital scrapbook and reflects the practices of appropriation and repetition associated with New Age spirituality. It also draws parallels with traditional techniques like sewing and collage, rooted in Victorian-era craftsmanship.
Voices raises questions about how technology reshapes our understanding of the metaphysical and influences our capacity for self-determination. The history of mediumship, often dismissed as esoteric, is reimagined here as an enduring practice that offers pathways to empowerment, especially for women who have been historically marginalized.
