ASH ELIZA SMITH



Fish Phone Booth

Artists: Ash Eliza Smith + Robert Twomey
A Speculative Devices x Cohab Labs Production

Fish Phone Booth is an interactive audio and sensory media experience where storytelling meets guided sound bath. Created by artists Ash Eliza Smith and Robert Twomey, the project translates ocean data beyond human perception into immersive, embodied encounters. Drawing from marine bioacoustics, animal migration data, and speculative design, the piece invites participants to tune into oceanic soundscapes—and imagine what it might mean to talk back.

Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and affiliated labs have been recording underwater soundscapes for decades, using High-frequency Acoustic Recording Packages (HARPs)—underwater microphones known as hydrophones—to capture everything from whale songs and dolphin clicks to passing ships and military sonar. These recordings reveal not only the lives of marine animals, but also the acoustic pollution threatening their habitats.

Inspired by this research, Smith and Twomey created a sculptural phone booth that acts as a speculative interface between human and oceanic life. Inside, participants are guided through a sound journey—listening to marine audio, layered storytelling, and ambient cues, and responding with their own vocalizations. Outside the booth, their movements are tracked and visualized as flowing trails that echo the migratory patterns of sea life.

The project poses speculative questions:
What if a fish could text you about ocean noise? What if the sea could listen back? Could a phone call connect us to an internet of animals—and what would that mean?

As part of the experience, the artists are collecting participant responses to train a custom AI model designed to explore human–animal communication. In this way, Fish Phone Booth functions as both an immersive performance and a living research platform—bridging data, voice, and multispecies interaction.

⸻

Context

Fish Phone Booth was prototyped with support from the La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival and is part of EMBODIED PACIFIC, a PST ART: Art & Science Collide exhibition.
View the project at: www.embodiedpacific.com

EMBODIED PACIFIC is a partnership between UC San Diego Visual Arts and Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, featuring 30 artists working in collaboration with scientists across Southern California and the Pacific Islands. Through exhibitions, workshops, and performances at six venues, the project invites immersive engagement with oceanography, Indigenous design, and critical craft.

Fish Phone Booth is also part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide, Southern California’s landmark arts initiative presented by Getty, featuring over 70 exhibitions exploring the intersections of art and science—from ancient cosmologies and Indigenous sci-fi to artificial intelligence and environmental justice.
Learn more at pst.art

⸻

Creative Team

Lead Artists:
•Ash Eliza Smith – Speculative Devices Lab, Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts
•Robert Twomey – Machine Cohabitation Lab, UC San Diego

Production & Support Team:
•Sam Bendix – Production, Graphic, and Experience Design
•Reid Brockmeier – Developer, Design Support
•Michał Stankiewicz – Dramaturgy

Supported by:
La Jolla Playhouse Without Walls (WOW) Festival
Worlds in Play
Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts
UC San Diego Visual Arts
Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography