The Third Temple

On March 21, 2013, Terry A. Davis released TempleOS. First released in 2005 as the “J Operating System” to design games, it was later changed to function as the Third Temple of God prophesized in the Hebrew Bible. Multiple limitations are incorporated into the design of the operating system such as its 16-bit color and 640x480 resolution, because “God said 640x480 16 color is a covenant like circumcision.” The OS also has a random-number, word, and bible-passage generator all included as ways to commune with God reflecting Davis’s belief in seeing messages from God in what other people saw as randomness. 

           In The Third Temple, Matthew Fisher constructs a physical manifestation to house Davis’s digital temple. The first work, Columbarium, a four-panel sound-activated polyptych made of rusted sheet metal functions as a portrait of Davis and his degenerated mind. These panels are screen-printed with a collection of images representing Davis himself, an elephant, the old TempleOS logo, his face, silhouettes of him dancing, as well as a quote from Davis on the nature of reality. Emanating from the polyptych is the TempleOS hymn “Risen”, often used by Davis as the theme. The second work, Glossolalia, is a collection of 20 rusted sheet-metal panels each adorned with 30 random-word sequences generated through TempleOS’s built-in tongues feature. These passages are revealed as the rust flakes off each panel’s surface, acting as pseudo-pareidolic messages from God.  A laptop running TempleOS and a printed booklet containing Davis’s own words is located in the middle of the space to allow visitors to commune with God as Davis intended.