‘The Ever-Changing Flow’ a Digital Diorama
The Ever-Changing Flow
Artist & Concept Developer
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
Getty Foundation — Pacific Standard Time 2024
The Ever-Changing Flow is a multimedia diorama commissioned for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles’ centennial exhibition, Reframing Dioramas, as part of the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time 2024 initiative. The installation presents five ecological epochs of the Los Angeles River, tracing its transformation from natural watershed to urban infrastructure and culminating in a speculative future of habitat restoration.
I led concept development and execution for the project, shaping the narrative structure, visual language, and technical approach in close collaboration with museum curators, fabricators, and media partners. The work blends extended-reality technologies with traditional museum materials—including fabricated plant life and taxidermy—using projection-mapped 3D animations to activate the diorama’s background environment.
The project required balancing artistic interpretation with scientific accuracy, institutional constraints, and long-term durability within a museum setting. I developed a system that could communicate complex ecological history across generations while remaining relatable, engaging, and maintainable over a year-long exhibition run.
This initiative was endorsed by Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR), aligning the installation with ongoing community-based habitat restoration efforts. Through this collaboration, the work invites museum visitors to see themselves as participants in shaping the future of Los Angeles’ public landscapes.
Exhibited September 2024 – September 2025.
Render Stills
Scene 1 Natural River
Scene 2 Agriculture Boom
Scene 3 The Flood
Scene 4 Present Day
Scene 5 Future Vision
Previs
Ecological map produced by Stillwater Sciences
Art Science & Technology
To seamlessly blend the multimedia aspects into one immersive experience, a custom screen was fabricated to help simulate an eye-level viewpoint for the viewer, atop a ridge.
The scenes projected on this 180 display are rendered from the viewer's viewpoint and geometrically corrected for off-axis projection. This approach delivers a forced perspective experience, creating an illusion of a true depth-of-field into the horizon of each scene.
This concept also features five unique soundscapes to create an engaging and immersive experience for viewers. These elements allow visitors to explore the diorama at their own pace and gain a deeper understanding of the installation and its context.
Pre-vis studies were created in partnership with Stillwater Sciences, as the ecolgical map designer, Mar Sorell, as projection mapping artist, and Jet Olaño as the CAD artist.
