What is it?
Inspired by the refugium of this endangered little fish, this tank-shaped video display lets you blend the Pahrump poolfish with its former habitat.
By rotating the knob, you choose which video is shown:
- The Pahrump poolfish, in its concrete refugium (a highly secure fish tank) at Corn Creek in Desert National Wildlife Refuge near Las Vegas, Nevada
- The nearby Nevada desert
- Or a mixture of both
The video tracks are both my footage.
With the knob set to a certain value, around 161, a Pahrump poolfish can be seen “swimming through the desert” from one “pool” to the next every few minutes.
The Pahrump poolfish is a tiny creature that was nearly driven to extinction. When its last natural habitat, Manse Spring, was pumped dry by Las Vegas and agriculture in 1975, 29 Pahrump poolfish were saved; their descendents live on in a real-world refugium.
I imagine the refugium as a sort of spaceship for these tiny fish—a refuge, but also a constraint.