Press the SpaceBar to begin

on a phone or tablet, tap anywhere

Keys 1-8: switch curve type
L: toggle curve visibility
P: pause, S: stop, R: reverse
X: speed up, Z: slow down

Keys 1-8 set curve type

  1. Rhodonea 1 (8 petals)
  2. Rhodonea 2 (3 petals)
  3. Gear 1
  4. Rounded star
  5. Lemniscate (figure 8)
  6. Lissajous
  7. Random
  8. Gear 2

Additional controls

  • Spacebar: start / resume
  • L: show / hide curve
  • R: reverse direction
  • P: pause
  • S: stop
  • X: speed up
  • Z: slow down
  • T: trails on / off
  • H: hide the interface

The fish won't start

Click or tap once inside the page so it has keyboard focus, then press the spacebar.

The fish won't speed up or slow down

Tap X or Z a few times for a noticeable change. The tails grow longer at higher speeds, so interesting things happen when the fish are moving fast.

Nothing to install

This version runs on plain web technology. It no longer needs the Unity Web Player, and it works on phones and tablets.

artifish, v0.6

artifish grew out of development on an interactive version of John Whitney's 1972 classic, Matrix III. It consists of six sinuous creatures, the fish, whose motion across the screen is governed by the principle of Differential Motion, resulting in a meditative visual counterpoint.

You can control the fish's speed and direction, and select from an array of preset paths for them to follow. Each fish swims slightly faster than the one before it, so they drift apart, pass through moments of chaos, and fall back into formation.

Future versions will populate the communal aquarium with a variety of unique digital creatures and vegetation, and let you draw your own paths directly on a touchscreen.

2026, v0.6 (web rebuild)

Rebuilt from the ground up on p5.js. The original 2014 prototype ran in the Unity Web Player, a browser plugin that no longer exists. This version reproduces the same curves, controls and motion with no plugin, and runs on mobile devices.

Fish speeds follow the harmonic series (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 times a base rate). Watch the centre of the rose curves: every time the slowest fish finishes one petal, all six meet at the origin, then drift apart again. That realignment is Whitney's Differential Motion resolving, and it only happens when the speed ratios are whole numbers.

2014-03-28, v0.5 (proto)

This version of artifish constituted a prototype submitted for consideration in Google's DevArt competition. It ran as a web app only in the Unity Web Player.

artifish was designed and coded by Richard Rodkin.

© 2014-2026 Richard Rodkin and Memetic Arts, Inc.

The original Unity prototype was released as open source on GitHub. The development story is in the DevArt 2014 dev blog.

You are free to use the images you generate as long as proper attribution is given, per Creative Commons BY 3.0.