  Optically confined colloidal particles, when placed in close proximity, form
a dissipatively coupled system through hydrodynamic interactions. Here, we
demonstrate that these interactions can be harnessed to design systems with
non-trivial and highly tunable non-equilibrium characteristics, directly
quantifiable from experimental data. Furthermore, we clarify that such
interactions do not modify the underlying potential energy function, nor do
they violate the energy balance at the level of individual trajectories, as was
believed earlier. Moreover, they offer new opportunities for tailored control
and design of mesoscale systems with emergent and targeted nonequilibrium
properties.
