Will Pappenheimer, 2017, Screen capture video of augmented reality content at various sites, currently on site for the NEA funded exhibition, The Augmented Landscape curated by Boston Cyberarts, in Salem, Massachusetts.

Ascension of Cod creates a school of virtual cod swimming upwards in a column as if in an ascension to the heavens. It calls up the reverence and endangerment of these fish both as an abundant food source and as a historic local livelihood. Massachusetts Bay cod, known as “Sacred Cod,” have been so plentiful that they became the hallmark of New England fisheries and trade. Up until recently. Surveys have revealed that up to 80% of the cod have been either fished or suffered from the effects of warming oceans. This is struggle between the fisherman’s time honored livelihood, the science behind the fisheries’ regulation and a farewell spiral of species.

Will Pappenheimer is a Brooklyn based artist and a founding member of the Manifest.AR international collective who have pioneered works in augmented reality since 2010.

Pappenheimer’s work has been shown at Whitney Museum of American Art, LACMA, Los Angeles; San Francisco MOMA; Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; FACT, Liverpool, UK; Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, Istanbul; Fringe Exhibitions in Los Angeles; the ICA, Boston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; New Museum in New York; the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington; FILE, Sao Paulo, BR; and Turbulance.org. The artist’s works have been featured in Christiane Paulʼs historical editions of “Digital Art,” Art in America, New York Times, Hyperallergic.org, WIRED, EL PAIS, Madrid, and Liberation, Paris. He teaches new media at Pace University, New York.