Now open at PCAI’s pi pavilion in Delphi, Charles Sandison’s new installation The Garden of Pythia transforms ancient myth into a living dialogue between nature and technology. Premiered on April 9th during the Delphi Economic Forum, the permanent, site-specific work fuses generative projections, local environmental data, and historical imagery from the Temple of Apollo. Inspired by the legendary Oracle of Delphi, Sandison reimagines the Pythia as an early interface for human inquiry—an organic precursor to artificial intelligence.
As night falls, glowing words and ancient symbols flicker through trees and stones, forming and dissolving like a digital apparition. The installation responds in real-time to its surroundings, using custom code and environmental sensors to evolve with temperature and light changes. “It’s part-mountainside, part-silicon matrix,” says Sandison, who spent two years fine-tuning the work on location. He sees the oracle’s ritual site as a kind of ancient logic board—Delphi as the original search engine.
Commissioned by PCAI and Polygreen, the project reflects both the region’s cultural heritage and a future-facing ecological vision. As PCAI Artistic Director Kika Kyriakakou notes, the piece embodies Sandison’s “sculptural approach to information” while addressing the fragility of our natural and technological ecosystems.
CHARLES SANDISON
The Garden of Pythia
Courtesy of CHARLES SANDISON and PCAI