Friends With Computers | Under Waters

Friends with Computers—April Phillips (Wiradjuri-Scottish), Jordan East and Pat Younis—create deeply sensory, immersive installations that merge First Nations knowledge, science and poetic computation.

Presented as the first boorda yeyi Immersive Arts Commission (an initiative of PICA – Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts), Under Waters carries audiences into a speculative past, billions of years before our own, when saltwater stretched across most of the Earth’s surface. The installation celebrates water as a key element of life, opening a portal into deep time where oceanic and celestial realms entwine.

Visitors are invited to slow down and dwell within a living, generative environment that reshapes itself in response to their presence. Through real-time body tracking, each person’s silhouette dissolves and reforms as Xenophora-like forms echoing marine molluscs that adorn their shells with gathered fragments. As audiences linger, their digital bodies accrete layers of coral, sand, rock and stellar matter, becoming part of an abundant natural world.

Building on her earlier collaborative works, including kajoo yannaga (Come on, Let’s Walk Together), presented at ACMI / Now or Never in 2024, Phillips continues her practice of creating interactive worlds using game engines, photogrammetry and generative sound in close dialogue with community. Under Waters draws on cultural reciprocity and deep respect for Country, with contributions from emerging First Nations artists at the Digital Lab Roebourne and connections to shell collections from the Dampier Archipelago held at WA Museum Boola Bardip.

Exhibition Video