This art work, Utopia for the Golden Frog, is a demonstration piece to show that individual "citizen scientists" are capable of caring for this species using retrofit everyday artifacts. This climate controlled and biosecure tank can only hold a few adult frogs and since it does not contain standing water the frogs will not breed. Building on the spirit of Do-It-Yourself Biology, a grassroots scientific movement, this installation is meant to illustrate the possibilities of increasing the carrying capacity of the amphibian conservation network amidst a large scale mass extinction event.

The Utopia for the Golden Frog of Panama is currently on display at Proteus Gowanus, an art gallery in Brooklyn, New York. This installation is on display next to tanks of Xenopus laevis, another species of frog that is indirectly implicated in driving the Golden Frog, and many other amphibians, extinct. Xenopus can carry the pathogenic chytrid fungus in its skin without apparent symptoms. Initially, starting in the 1930s, Xenopus was transported around the world for use as a pregnancy test. Injecting urine from pregnant humans into Xenopus makes it ovulate. Xenopus is also common in the pet trade, sold at many corner stores in America and abroad. Many other organisms, like waterfowl and humans who don't wash their boots, can also play a role in transporting the chytrid fungus. But, the Xenopus Pregnancy Test is believed to be the original route for transporting this deadly disease around the world.

The Open Source hardware powered by Arduino. This was taken at the prototyping stage when I was connecting all the pieces together and making them talk.

Lining everything up on the fridge and running wires into the inner-aquarium. I accidentally put the screen on upside down!

Another prototyping shot, before we sold out to Fahrenheit.

A few last minute adjustments with my collaborator Eben Kirksey. We made sure the viewing angle was good for kids and adults.

Once I got in the gallery space I added a web server to track the temperature and humidity of the fridge and set up a live webcam feed.

The freezer was converted into an incubator for mutant fruit flies (no wings means easy pickins' for the frogs).

A front view of the Utopia inside the gallery.

The onboard computer with description for gallery-goers. Proof that it works!

What it all looked like through the gallery doors. That's a mister on top.

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