Surface Tension

Surface Tension is a kinetic wall installation exploring the relationship between microscopic life and large-scale motion.

The concept started with wave behavior — the slow, sequential movement of a surface responding to an unseen force. A grid of panels, each driven by its own linear actuator, creates a rolling wave sequence across the wall. The motion is continuous and unhurried. It reads as organic before it reads as mechanical.

The surface graphics come from the Ottawa River. The team collected microorganism samples from the water and stylized them into the panel geometry — connecting the kinetic behavior above to the biological world below. What moves like a wave is covered in what lives in one.