Moving Waters proposes an infrastructural and epistemological framework for coexisting with water in Tuvalu, one of the most vulnerable nations to sea level rise. The project starts by acknowledging that, in Tuvalu, water is not just a threat but rather a relational medium; fluid, sovereign, and profoundly embedded in cultural life. Instead of opposing the inevitable encroachment of tides, Moving Waters advocates for a form of oceanic inhabitation grounded in observation and care.
This project focuses on the gravitational interplay between ocean tides and the lunar cycle, developing a low-tech water sensor designed to convert planetary forces into data accessible to the community and deployed locally. Installed around the islands of Tuvalu, the sensor serves as both a tool and a ritual, providing predictive capabilities while reaffirming indigenous knowledge systems that have long interpreted ocean currents, stars, and tides as part of daily life. Through this apparatus, water is sensed not only as a rising threat but as a living archive of Tuvaluan territory, identity, and environmental stewardship.
Tuvalu’s fluid geographies challenge conventional notions of territory and statehood. The project frames the sea as a field of sovereignty to be read, sensed, and engaged with. As rising waters blur the line between land and ocean, the sensor provides situated knowledge and a poetic approach, anchoring Tuvalu’s sovereignty in motion rather than stasis. Moving Waters envisions a future where communities stay connected to their environment through intimate observations of tidal movements and celestial patterns. It is a call to decentralise climate sensing, recover relational practices of ocean literacy, and ensure that Tuvaluans, like their waters, continue to move, deliberately, collectively, and with agency.
