Ghost Jockey is an audio/video (1 channel video, stereo audio) installation which continually generates a stream of mash-up music and video.

Aurally, the program repeatedly swaps samples from a library, layers and aligns them by tempo and key, and makes decisions on volume levels. The library contains samples from many different genres (the incongruous juxtapositions are often the most interesting), and most samples are intended to be recognizable (raising an inquiry regarding the heavy weight contemporary music places on nostalgia).

The visuals are created by running a Google image search on the name and artist of each sample, cycling through the results, and adjusting the brightness with the volume of each sample track; the result is multi-track layered images that pulse with the beats of the music. Since many of the results are recognizable or even iconic (album covers, portraits, etc), the viewer has another correlative force to tax the nostalgia center of the brain. The chaos of the web, however, still serves many surprise results, adding another level of often-humorous incongruity.

The result is pleasing and entrancing; yet the relative ease with which a computer subsumes the role of DJ and VJ is intended to comment upon the lack of originality required to create directionless or non-hierarchical collage. The program was created from scratch in the max/msp/jitter environment.