Researchers at Scripps Oceanography have been eavesdropping on marine soundscapes for decades to study animals and the threats they face. High-frequency Acoustic Recording Packages (HARPs) use underwater microphones, or hydrophones, to capture everything from whale songs and dolphin clicks to passing ships and military sonar.

Inspired by this work, Ash Eliza Smith and Robert Twomey invite us into an interactive audio experience that blends storytelling with a guided sound bath. Inside a phone booth, participants embark on an underwater journey, tuning in to both animal and human-made sounds—and responding with their own vocalizations. Outside the booth, people’s movements are tracked, creating visual trails that echo the migratory patterns of sea life.

The project poses thought-provoking questions: What if the animals we listen to could talk back? What if a fish could text you about ocean noise? Could a phone call connect us to an “internet of animals,” and what would that mean? This work brings ocean acoustics and the idea of an “internet of animals” to life, transforming data beyond human perception into an immersive sensory experience.

Fish Phone Booth is a project of Ash Eliza Smith + Robert Twomey (A Speculative Devices x Cohab Labs Production). Production, Graphic and Experience Design support: Sam Bendix. Developer, Design support: Reid Brockmeier. Dramaturgy: Micha? Stankiewicz. Prototyped in support from the La Jolla Playhouse Without Walls Festival, Worlds In Play and The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts.

https://aquarium.ucsd.edu/newsroom/embodied-pacific-ocean-unseen