Phases is a generative art installation created for the Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion. Running only after sunset, the animation evokes moonlight sparkling on ocean waves receding into the nighttime darkness. It is purposefully reminiscent of the condensed landscapes in early computer games where the complexity of nature is distilled into such a small number of pixels, analogous to modern difficulties in reducing complex real-world environments and situations into simple metrics computers can understand. The animation is alive, and a computer program pulls information in real-time about the conditions of the Boston Harbor Islands to influence the constantly evolving animation. While bringing awareness to the challenge of capturing real-world complexities using limited representations within the computer, Phases uses technology to link two places together in real-time, bringing a little bit of the Boston Harbor Islands to the city.