Miriti is an ancestral material found along Amazonian riverbanks and deeply embedded in local craft traditions. Lightweight and porous, it carries the embodied knowledge of communities shaped by water, movement, and seasonal change. In this installation, miriti is not used symbolically but structurally: its material properties and craft logic determine form, balance, and motion, directly shaping how the robotic body behaves.

The main fish body was designed by Amazonian artist Marcelo Vaz, drawing from traditional articulated miriti toys that use embedded fabric joints to gently propagate movement. Beneath the structure, an electromechanical system translates the pirarucu’s anatomy into a choreography of tension and elasticity. Small motors act like muscles, pulling thread tendons and elastic elements that balance force and rest, allowing the body to undulate slowly and continuously. Rather than imposing motion, the system responds to the miriti itself, amplifying its material intelligence and producing rhythms shaped by water, gravity, and time.