Evolution of Fish
Interactive Augmented Reality Large Projection Installation, by Tamiko Thiel and /p, 2019
Created during an artist residency for the Digital Graffiti Festival, Alys Beach, Florida, May 17th - 18th, 2019

Evolution of Fish is an augmented reality large projection that turns the surroundings--outside on building facades, or inside on gallery walls--into an underwater reef, filled with schools of fish. Visitors can use iPads to guide the fish around the space--but the more they intervene in the virtual ecosystem, the more the fish turn to plastic garbage. Originally created for the Digital Graffiti Festival in the Florida Gulf Coast, the installation includes large silvery Amberjacks, game fish known for their love of debris, and colorful reef fish that will become more common on the Florida Gulf Coast, as they migrate northward due to warming waters.

Digital Graffiti Festival: large scale outdoor projection

Digital Graffiti Festival, Alys Beach, Florida, 17-21 May 2019
Curator Brett Phares

For the World Premiere at the Digital Graffiti Festival in Alys Beach, Florida, we projected Evolution of Fish -- and any visitors who were caught by the AR camera -- onto two house facades on each side of a small park, thus engulfing visitors in a huge outdoor "aquarium." Visitors could guide the fish using two iPad connected to the projectors -- but the more they interfered with the virtual ecosystem, the more the fish turned into plastic waste.

evolution of fish


Pan around two Evolution of Fish augmented reality projections, Digital Graffiti Festival, Alys Beach.



Video recording of Evolution of Fish projected on a house at Alys Beach for the Digital Graffiti Festival, 2019



Playing around with the video feedback loop when you point the iPad at its own projected image.

Threats to Ocean Ecosystems in the Anthropocene

Evolution of Fish seeks to playfully engage the public in a very serious threat to ocean ecosystems: ocean borne plastic waste. The links below are a work in progress as I seek positive responses to how this can be solved - or at least ameliorated.

Ocean borne plastic waste