TYLER CALKIN
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Watershed
tags: nature, optics, intangible
2025
Watershed is a collaborative art and science exhibition and studio/field project exploring shifting weather, climate, and invasive species populations in the Tahoe watershed. Calkin collaborated with limnologist Sudeep Chandra and artist Sasha Petrenko to visualize the unseen ecosystems of an over-photographed place. They worked with a team including researcher and Captain Katie Senft and Marine Taxonomic Services Captain Richard Panuschka and divers Hamza Mahmoud and Elisa Stansall.
Works draw from 3D scanned specimens of threatened native Lahontan cutthroat trout and overabundant invasive crayfish and visualize these organisms in kaliedoscopic and vibrant AR at scales that alternately dwarf the human body with place-based outdoor activation and mimic it with swarming face- and body-tracking. Meanwhile a body-tracking particle system uses data from a research paper studying the 2021 Caldor wildfires to visualize smoke particulate and effects on chlorophyll uptake. Videos in the exhibition include a 360-degree headset presentation of an underwater drag along the shallow bottom of the lake, and an interactive video collage of multiple deep water recordings in which objects from field research trigger transitions when touched.
Lahontan Sky
Particulate Particles
leniusculus Self-Image (CrayFace)
Immersion Drag
Watershed
Watershed (installation view with Specimen Table)