Ambiguous Machines

Launched in November 2024, the fourth commission in the Wild Eye trail is an Augmented Reality work from leading UK artist Shezad Dawood collaborating with award-winning writer Daisy Hildyard.

Weaving together science, storytelling, myth and local knowledge, the work, accessed via QR codes along Scarborough’s seafront, explores the future of UK marine and coastal environments.

Comprising a public Augmented Reality trail, accessed via QR codes at three sites along Scarborough’s seafront, Ambiguous Machines envisions a future where sea levels have risen, Scarborough is underwater and humans and marine species have co-evolved to become hybrid.

Developed through dialogue with local scientists, conservationists and community groups, artist Shezad Dawood invites audiences to meet digital characters inspired by real-life local conservationists – including Magnus the Shrimp, Jane the Seaweed Being and Stuart the Post-human Whale – before becoming further immersed in this newly imagined world through an accompanying short fiction entitled The Aquarium from writer Daisy Hildyard.

AR development by Gabriel Stones. Sound by Slowfoam.

How to access the AR creatures and Story

You will need a smartphone to scan the QR codes and see the Augmented Reality creatures. There is a good mobile signal at the first and third locations and signal (plus free public Wi-Fi) at the second, though different networks may vary in signal strength.

Information on the work is available in text, audio and video formats via QR codes on the signage for the work in Scarborough or via this website.

If you would like to access the works remotely, from locations other than Scarborough, you can see the AR creatures on your smart phone by using the links/ QR codes in the access section below. Please note: they will not connect with their environment in the same way as when you see them in their intended locations – come to Scarborough!

Hear artist Shezad Dawood and writer Daisy Hildyard discuss the making of Ambiguous Machines. You’ll also hear the voices of Dr Magnus Johnson, senior lecturer at the Marine Biology Unit with in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Hull; Dr Jane Pottas, retired seaweed researcher from the University of Hull; Stuart Baines, a representative for the National cetacean organisation, the Sea Watch Foundation; local workshop attendees and students from Scarborough Sixth Form College.

Audio Production and Sound Design by Lucia Scazzocchio from Social Broadcasts.

Read a transcript here.