MYCELIUM
In October 2022, WHO published a report that highlighted the first-ever list of fungal “priority pathogens – a catalogue of 19 fungi species that present the greatest threat to public health. The newfound attention we are giving to the danger of a fungal outbreak is all thanks to the Covid pandemic.
But, this interest in the nature of fungal growth is not new in the world of science fiction. The video game turned TV drama 'The Last of Us' is a good example of this weird fascination. The spores enter the body. The fungus then grows and begins to hijack the mind of its host, until it loses control. The parasitic fungus devours its victim from the inside, extracting every last nutrient, as it prepares for its big finale. Then - in a scene more disturbing than the scariest horror film -a tendril of death erupts from the head. This fruiting body of the fungusshowers spores on everything around it - dooming others to the same zombiefate.
It sounds like a work of fiction. But the kingdom of fungi - distinct from plants and animals - ranges from edible mushrooms to nightmare-fuel parasites. Species of parasitic Cordyceps and Ophiocordyceps fungi are very real. They can turn insects into zombie insects. Taking inspiration from this, I wanted to create something simple to showcase the speed and reach of fungal growth.
The project is thus, inspired by fungal growth patterns. Something that you might see on the floor of a forest. There are some artists that I took inspiration from as well, like Janusz Jurek – polish designer and illustrator who creates forms of generative illustration and relates it to the human form (left).
English artist, Chris Drury tries to confront environmental issues through his work, also shifts focus on the correlations and tensions between nature and humans (below) .
In the project a new class called fungus is used. It uses Object oriented programming. Each fungal outgrowth is just a line segment that splits and connects to others.
The tendrils draw in random directions, but when they split they do so in an angle; creating a visual of random fungus-like outgrowth. Changing the split angle creates a different kind of aesthetic.
The background is not drawn in draw but in setup, so that it gets created once and never again. If the tendrils reach a certain radius they stop growing, similarly if it reaches a certain age it gets removed. Hitting the ‘p’ button will pause or un-pause it, this is helpful when debugging the code. The amount of tendrils increasing slows down the frame rate, so if this happens it starts over.
Going forward, I would like to add to this project by adding a colour gradient to the tendrils. Wherein the older the tendril gets the darker the colour. I could also add random blooms like fungus do. To make it more interesting I want to create human silhouettes rather than a circle.