Tide of Light

In the quiet of a forest, a question lingers: if a tree falls and no one is around, does it make a sound? Beneath the ocean's waves, bioluminescence answers. That glow has shimmered for eons without needing a witness. Creatures dressed in their own light dance a silent spectacle of colour, driven by the urge to live, to seduce, to communicate.

Tide of Light is a tribute to that innate light, to the art nature sculpted into marine life long before human eyes marvelled at it. Visitors enter a simulation where each step sets off a trail of light that spreads and fades, like plankton stirred by the water. Science and contemplation, technology and poetry: a beauty that happens without us and grows with our participation.

Lidar sensors read the steps across the floor and a TouchDesigner system turns each touch into light, in real time. The body is the gesture that stirs the water; the work is the sea's reply.

The interaction mirrors the delicate relation between humanity and the oceans, between knowing and feeling. By drawing attention to the subtlety and strength of natural cycles, the work asks what our part is in keeping them: may the splendour that flourished for millions of years without an observer keep shining in the depths, for the next generations to find.