Fluid Anatomy is a purely analogue system powered only through water and air, based on components and circuits from fluid mechanics. The installation implements a fluidic model in which water and air carry information. This fluidic computer fills the entire space with its swirls, pulsating fluids and vibrations.

 

Fluidics, also known as fluid logic, is a research field established in the 1950s that uses fluid jets to perform operations similar to those achieved through electronics. In fluidics, form follows function, curved intricate cavities become switches that can resist radiation and environmental decay. Such shapes were sent into space, powered automation machines (Soviet Volga Jet System) and heart valves. 1964 saw the first fluid digital computer FLODAC released by Univac. These circuits were still slow compared to their electronic counterparts and in a time where speed became key, fluidics lost itself in history.
 

Focusing on fluidics as an alternative to electronics, ‘Fluid Anatomy’ unravels a forgotten parallel history to highlight the beauty and resilience of computers that become fluid. The installation exposes more than 20 shapes restored and transformed from old patents and archives. These lost and found circuits reanimate a technology that does not want to become faster but rather attuned to water and air movements. It appears as if their humanesque form defies the rectangularity of electronic circuit boards.

 

Some presented forms like the Equivalence element are modelled after human physiology as Petrovick expands in ‘A Guide to Fluidics - 1971’ where he compares the oral system to a fluidic circuit. The vocal cords become a vortex flow modulator, the lips, a variable-output-impedance valve and the tongue a Variable fluid capacitor et cetera. Others based on the ‘fluidistor’ (fluidic transistor) present integrated logic and analogue circuits. Vortex amplifiers create bubbling gyres while oscillators indicate through tones the output state of the system. 

 

The stream makes its way, pumped throughout a branching system of tubes. As it enters the geometries, its path is deflected by the Coanda effect. This physical phenomenon notes that jets tend to attach to convex surfaces, curves attract and therefore can deviate a stream. Each shape forms a cavity comprised of attentively placed contours that move the path from side to side. The installation pursues these riveting morphologies to construct a large circuitry that rests in a state of feedback as everything recirculates. All calculations are made transparent to the public through plates of acryl glass and tubes.

 

Input sensors trace the presence and absence of water and air. A large Oscillator with long feedback paths clocks the system. A pulse shaper circuit creates vibration. Jets are Counted (in a Binary Counter), memorised (in a Shift Register), compared (in a Comparator), reduced (in a Subtraction circuit) and joined in a final Summer. Parallel air paths control diverse oscillators which resound in cascaded whistled frequencies. As the installation passes from one rhythmic pattern to another, the public is invited to walk amongst fluidic bodies and listen to the subtle sounds that water and air produce.