NOC Project A – Magic Fungi

🪄Magic Fungi🍄

🔗 Interact with the “Magic Fungi” on p5.js

VIDEO RECORDING

 

CONCEPT-🔗Presentation Slides

When doing the case study, I was amazed by this project named “Upward”, which visualizes the growth of physarum. As I wrote in the document, I was attracted to this project because it combines digital art and biology in a really fresh way. Its focus on technologically connecting life and nature matches what we do in our work of visualizing real-world elements. Besides, I’m also excited about exploring themes like biodiversity and the beauty of life through interactive exploration.

 

Another project that really caught my eye is the project named “Eyes of Weibo” by Chenghao He. The amazing visualization of the data of public’s comments on the social media is so clear and impressive that makes it a captivating experience for viewers.

WORK PROCESS

More Research on Fungi

Before I attempted to mimic the growth of fungi using p5, I felt that I need to gain a deeper understanding of how this species grows. Thus, I searched and watched many educational videos on YouTube, including time-lapse videos. Additionally, I found an illustration in an article published on Microbiology Society detailing the different shapes and growth patterns of fungi, including some fascinating “communication” behaviors such as spore dispersal. According to Microbiology Society, the observation method of colony morphology is a scientific measure that is applied in order to identify the features of a single fungus.

Fungi are so fun!! Inspired by the scientific idea of colony morphology and the incredibly beautiful shapes and interactions of fungi as shown in the time-lapse videos, I was more than willing to explore both the unique features of different fungi and the communications between them as a whole. Therefore, I gradually had the idea of building TWO STAGES for my project: 1. A handbook of fungi which display their fundamental features separately; 2. A  larger space of fungi universe which encourages the users to “plant” their own fungi freely.

“So much value from just one genus of fungus and we’ve only just scratched the surface of what’s possible…I can’t wait to explore it with you all.”

——EverymanBio

Try it Out!

I started the project by trying to visualize several typical fungi and their growing patterns:

TEST#01: 

🔗Link to Test#01 on p5.js

 

Through research, I discovered that the visual effects of the Clusters mini-project I did in week02 closely resemble the growth morphology of fungal hyphae depicted in the Microbiology Society article. Therefore, I used my mini project02 code as the source code, adjusted settings such as transparency and color, and utilized the dist() function to confine the movement of objects within a circular area. This aimed to simulate the effect of fungal growth being restricted to a circular expansion outward, which is similar to the growth pattern observed in a petri dish.

TEST#02: 

🔗Link to Test#02 on p5.js

 

The visualization of mold was one of the initial effects I was most eager to achieve. So, I attempted to use the noise() function to achieve this irregular motion and growth effect. With Professor Moon’s suggestion, I added a variable called lifespan to control the opacity of each point. This results in a more satisfactory color representation to me. Additionally, after adding blendMode(ADD), I noticed that using the mouseDragged function to draw mold colors produced a spreading effect from the center to the edges. So I then decided to use blendMode (which was also the only fungus type utilizing this function) for this specific category of fungus.

TEST#03: 

🔗Link to Test#03 on p5.js

 

From my observation, certain Fungi showed a spiral developing pattern, which is kind of interesting and distinguished from others. For this specific type, I tried using angle and sin/cos functions together with the noise value to achieve the spiral movements.

TEST#04: 

🔗Link to Test#04 on p5.js

 

TEST#05: 

🔗Link to Test#05 on p5.js

 

TEST#06: Combine!

In the second scene of my project, I displayed a fungi universe to showcase the diversity of the symbiosis of fungi. This also simulates the process of fungal growth under a microscope, as observed in the video.

 

REFLECTION🔗Presentation slides

Initially, I was about to use GUI (Graphical User Interface) for manipulating the characteristics of each fungus, but then I realized that it might be distracting to plant different seeds while also adjusting the value of different qualities. Because I wanted the process of planting different types of seeds to become a unified experience. However, this has also led to an issue where it’s currently unclear how users interact with the fungi during the process. After seeing presentations from other classmates, I realized that a GUI could be helpful for adjusting values during the operation process. Therefore, in the future, I may consider trying to implement this method for adjustments as well.

Also, I aim to achieve a more realistic and complex process of interaction between fungi, such as biocontrol, and variations between different colors. These aspects were not implemented in the current project due to time constraints. I hope to have the opportunity to incorporate similar effects in future developments!

REFERENCE

弹力球BOUNCYBALL. “Upward.” Mana – Global New Media Art Platform – Art / Design / Technology Cross-Industry Innovation, 2022, www.manamana.net/video/detail?id=2038875#!en.

何诚昊Kevin. “Eyes of Weibo｜Generative Art.” Mana – Global New Media Art Platform – Art / Design / Technology Cross-Industry Innovation, 2022, www.manamana.net/video/detail?id=1778050#!en.