Artist Daniel Wheeler believes that a tree falling in the forest always makes a sound, whether or not someone is there to hear it. But his belief comes with a caveat: The tree would make a different sound if someone were there, opposed to if someone were not.

"I believe that a person's presence generates everything," said the L.A.-based performance artist, who opened a six-week residency at Encinitas's Lux Art Institute last weekend. "The act of even looking at something changes that thing."

This theory permeates Wheeler's work as he explores how people and objects are related in the world. He calls himself a "free-form cultural anthropologist," creating works from sculpture and performance installation to public art and photography, to mine the essence of man's influence on the world they inhabit.

At the Lux institute, Wheeler will exhibit his photographic show "A GULP of Water, Air and Reality," and will add works to the show while he's in residence. GULP stands for Generative Urban Landscape Project, which focuses on the Southern California swimming pool as a viewpoint for the gardens that surround it.

Wheeler has been working on the GULP project for nearly four years. He suits up in scuba gear and uses his underwater camera to take photos from inside a variety of swimming pools, depicting the landscape and sky in oversized photographs.

"Basically, I'm looking at the manmade garden from the context of the pool," he said. "The landscape we find surrounding these pools cannot exist without pipes and water."

Always aware of the human presence and how it alters the scene, Wheeler took care to capture the results of his body in the water.

"As I descend, my movement distorts the surface of the pool because of my insertion," he noted. "So does my breath. So the ripples in the water and the air bubbles become a metaphor for that distortion. And even when you look at something, you distort it."

His photographs, which are 40 by 60 inches (what he calls "human scale"), allow the viewer to experience their distortion as well. Each one is encased in clear glossy acrylic, so that viewers can catch their own reflection as they look at the work.

"So I put you in the same position I was when I took the image," he pointed out. "Your presence makes a difference."

Wheeler wants viewers to subtly sense how their presence can distort everything in life, from politics and the environment to the economy and the social aspects of life.

A work he'll construct on site during his residency, "Blindspot," ties into the personal perspective element of his show. He'll shoot several photographs of the Lux Institute's four-acre grounds and will mount them on a sculptural photographic column (made from paper, tape and wire and standing 12 feet high and 40 inches across). The column will allow visitors to "see" the Lux grounds by looking at the photographs on the tower, but a human figure in the foreground of the images (representing themselves) will be the "blind spot" of the title.

"Wheeler has discovered a view that's unexplored, yet part of our lives," said Lux director Reesey Shaw. "And like an artifact from an extinct civilization, he presents his discovery with the magic that accompanies a fresh surprise."

Wheeler said he most hopes to get people thinking about art, the Southern California environment and their impact on it.

"I'm hoping to nudge people deeper into layers of thought," he said. "The old adage is often true: You don't care about something until you look at it."

"A GULP of Water, Air and Reality"

When: 1-5 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays; through Aug. 2; Lux Family Day is 1- 4 p.m. Saturday, with art projects, music and refreshments

Where: Lux Art Institute, 1550 S. El Camino Real, Encinitas

Tickets: $10 for two visits; under age 21 and members, free

Info: (760) 436-6611