Timeless Tides is an interactive installation by artist and researcher Kurina Sohn in collaboration with psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Leila Salvesen. The project was created as part of the NeuroNarratives residency, with contributions from philosopher and artistic researcher Marieke McKenna (translation, voice performance, and sound production) and creative technologist Loden Rietveld (hardware and software design). This project is supported by Amsterdam Kunst Fonds, Institute Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, NeuroNarrative, Art of Neuroscience, and Liminal Studio.

Across cultures, shells have been collected, carried, sounded as instruments, held to the ear, and invested with stories of longing, protection, and transformation. Familiar yet enigmatic, the shell becomes the point of departure for Timeless Tides: visitors are invited to sit, hold one of a series of sculptural forms, and enter a guided listening session. Each sculpture differs in its physical qualities, encouraging subtle bodily interactions that shape the felt sense of the encounter.

Developed in dialogue with contemporary research in cognitive sciences and integrative mind-body approaches, the installation draws from theories of predictive processing, embodied cognition, and hypnotic communication, questioning the scaffolds of our awareness. Rather than illustrating scientific concepts, the work creates conditions for visitors to notice, from a first-person perspective, that perception is not a passive readout of reality but rather an interpretative process driven by sensory interactions with the surrounding environment.

In contemporary society, where designed systems and standardized environments increasingly direct and structure our daily lives, many conditions influencing how we understand the world remain implicit. Timeless Tides is an open invitation to explore how material encounters quietly shape cognition, expectation, and perception.