“Amphibious Architecture”, Natalie Jeremijenko, 2009

“The sensors monitor water quality, the presence of fish, and human interest in the river’s ecosystem, while the lights respond to the sensors, creating feedback loops between humans, fish in their shared environment. Additionally an SMS interface allows homo-citizens to text-message the fish and receive real-time information about the river, contributing towards the collective display of human interest in the aquatic environment.”

Making what’s unseen, seen

I was most interested in this installation due to its nature of revealing what’s unseen to users. Usually, users can only see the surface of the water and so neither know nor care what’s underwater. By revealing certain information real-time and in an aesthetically appealing way, visitors of the river are enticed to interact and find out more about what’s beyond the water surface.

Making people care

People who previously did not know or care about the fishes now can ‘interact’ with these fishes. This gives a sense of interaction, relationship, and perhaps emotional attachment. Making people care about this environment thus could be easier as they are more invested and informed in every element of the environment instead of what is just visible to the eye.

Playing With Light

I feel that instead of pure text, the visual way that they represent the information is definitely more enticing and easily digested. While they do have text information in the format of SMS, the main attraction would still be the blinking light- if I were there, I would not stop sending texts to the installation. It is interesting how people could possibly change their attitudes towards the river because of the signs of life signified by the lights. Considering the reflective quality of the river water was also smart of the creators as it makes use of the natural environment.