oracles, shrines

[Anna] Schuleit Haber’s “The Beverly Oracle” design was selected from a field of 75 applicants. According to her preliminary proposal, this is how it works:

A visitor enters a free-standing, ground-level, single-room structure with a roof and tall glass windows located on Beverly Common, in front of Montserrat College of Art.

The person sits in a chair and is welcomed by a voice from speakers. The voice then asks, “What brings you here? What is your question?”

At that point, the windows, made of electrochromic smart glass, automatically change from transparent to opaque, providing privacy for the visitor. The visitor asks a question. The Oracle responds with sounds and language, and a printer prints out the answer, in the form of lines of poetry, for the visitor to take.

The windows change back to transparent, and the visitor leaves. At the same time, at four other locations in the downtown, the same answer is transmitted and displayed for the public to see.

more here.