Perpetual Motion is an interactive art-science installation created Yi Tai Sculpture & Installation Projects at Art Central, Hong Kong. The work juxtaposes two profound scientific maps of human movement and identity: an embodied cognitive map below and a deep ancestral map suspended above.

 

Visitors stand on a 3.5 metre sq. handmade carpet patterned after neuronal grid cells, specialized entorhinal cortex neurons that form an internal ‘GPS’ for spatial navigation, as discovered in the Nobel Prize-winning research. Recreated from original data (with permission), the carpet invites physical interaction: walking barefoot mirrors the brain’s own firing patterns, grounding abstract neuroscience in tactile, embodied experience.

 

Above, a large mobile sculpture of 62 UV-printed acrylic disks represents pre-1500 AD mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups, tracing female human migrations out of Africa ~65,000 years ago. Suspended from a burnt-wood structure evoking ancient roots, the disks spin gently, occasionally aligning to reveal a world map.

 

The installation functions as aesthetic intervention rather than didactic illustration, creating affective wonder and embodied understanding. It models a ‘new poetics of place’, where sensory experience opens dialogue on location, identity, and human wanderings.

 

Full Project Details: Perpetual Motion: Mapping Patterns of Movement

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