The tentacles of a sea anemone swaying in the ocean waves recall the image of a primitive organism. Among the studies published in Genome Research in 2014, it was found that sea anemones are genetically half plant and half animal [1,2]. Their primitive mode of life that encompasses diversity amid a chaos that human beings cannot understand reflects a vitality and beauty. Tentacle Flora is a robotic sculpture created with the mysterious sea anemone as its motif.

Tentacle Flora has 100 shape-memory alloy (SMA) actuators as tentacles. An SMA actuator is composed of a silicon tube, three BioMetal Fibers, a full-colored LED chip and a diffuser cap. A BioMetal Fiber, a thin SMA wire, contracts when heated and expands to its original length by cooling. An SMA actuator is actuated by three BioMetal Fibers and can bend in six directions by the combination of three pulse-width modulation (PWM) control currents. Furthermore, the Tentacle Flora system makes it possible to precisely control a large number of actuators using a distributed processing system that utilizes one microcontroller per actuator.

The Tentacle Flora project is an attempt to explore what it means to feel alive. Merely moving a mechanical structure comprising inorganic substances does not convey a sense of vitality. It is the delicate movement of the actuator and the gentle bioluminescence-like light at the tips of the tentacles that express a sense of living presence.

References
1. M. Schwaiger et al. Evolutionary conservation of the eumetazoan gene regulatory landscape. In Genome Research. DOI: 10.1101/gr.162529.113
2. Y. Moran et al. Cnidarian microRNAs frequently regulate their targets by cleavage. In Genome Research.
DOI: 10.1101/gr.162503.113

Exhibitions & Awards
Aesthetica Art Prize Longlist 2020.
SIGGRAPH 2019 Art Gallery.
Laval Virtual 2019 Art&VR Gallery.
ALife Art Award 2018 Special Jury Prize.