Perturbed self-recovering nervous system

2026. 6 actuator-driven articulated vertebrae · 1.3 m × 1.5 m x 0.5 m · ultrasonic sensing · Arduino · TouchDesigner & Unreal Engine

Tidal Spine imagines the decentralized nervous system of the tidal wetlands: brainless, rhythmic, sensitive, and resilient. Six actuator-driven vertebrae move as coupled oscillators, each tuned to real-time tide data from Mokpo, South Korea — one of the world’s most dramatically tidal landscapes. Human presence fractures the system’s phase alignment, sending its segments into turbulence. When the disturbance disappears, the Spine does not reset. It continues evolving from its altered state, absorbing, propagating and dissipating the turbulence, slowly finding its way back toward tidal rhythm.