Design ideas from generative content and environmentally relevant propositions:
There are science videos and documentation on how plants mutate in different environments, from which we can see that the traits of a plant can be inherited from its family and mutate in various ways in different ecological environments. Plants can mutually affect the environment in which it grows and reproduces.
Biology in Focus Ch 26 The Colonization of Land by Plants
For example, some science videos mention a flower that is pink when grown in acidic soil. When grown in neutral or alkaline soil, its petals are purple in colour. Some materials have shown that daisies under the influence of nuclear wastewater have grown misshapen and fissioned open.
mutated daisies near Fukishima nuclear power plant
I utilized ChatGTP to gain some inspiration for our project’s context by asking it about “possible characteristics of mutant plants”, “how plants would evolve with the impact of environmental changes”, and “ideas of plants’ morphosis and changes in a post-apocalyptic world” etc. Furthermore, I collected ideas and inspirations from descriptions in its response.
Examples from ChatGPT’s answers:
| Context/imaginary landscapes I used as prompts to the narrative | Ideas provided by ChatGPT |
| Mutant plants in underwater habitat | ‘Vines grew to massive lengths’
‘leaves were covered in tiny, hair-like structures’ ‘Leaves turned to face the sun like solar panels’ ‘Vines grew to massive lengths’ ‘Grew wild and untamed, roots delving deep into the rubble’ |
| On wasteland with extreme climate | ‘Leaves grew thicker to retain more water’
‘leaves become broader, thicker, and more robust, with a strange iridescence’ ‘rough, scaly, or slimy texture’ ‘spines’ |
| On lands under the contamination of nuclear radiation | ‘stems were able to twist and turn in the direction of the light’
‘Grew tall and twisted, leaves shimmering with an otherworldly energy’ ‘grew with giant, fleshy bulbs’ |
| Questions: | Answers: |
| imagine how nuclear contamination affects aquatic plant habitats | possible negative effects nuclear contamination may have on aquatic plant habitats:
radiation exposure; soil and sediment contamination; disruption of food chains; toxic chemical exposure; changes in water chemistry; reduction in biodiversity; changes in plant community structure… |
| imagine the appearance/physical characteristics of underwater plants in contaminated environment | possible characteristics include:
Dark or unusual coloring (novel pigments); abnormal growth patterns (altered morphology); unusual size; abnormal texture; hybridization; enhanced photosynthesis; enhanced reproductive strategies… |
In addition, inspired by these sources, including a collation of ideas drawn by ChatGPT and plant studies, I have listed some phrases to describe the mutation plants. And with the descriptions of environmental change used for pairing background images as well as being input variables, I categorised the conditions and environmental variations into the following areas. Adjustments are made based on the concepts I mentioned in the plant-evolving flowchart.
Negative environment variables:
1. Waste, e.g. emissions of rubbish, industrial garbage- The plant grows thinner, synapses arise, and mycorrhizal-like proliferation grows out
2. Contamination – darkening of the end of the plant’s buds and leaves, causing the structure to a deformity
3. Nuclear radiation – deformity, decay of the peduncles and stems of plants, mutation
Positive environment variables:
Plants grow abundantly, grow faster, higher, and stronger, leaves turning green and thrive…
A constant value:
During the plant model itself animation, the plant grows up and grows bigger and higher
To gain visual references of concept art illustrations and designs, on the other hand, I appropriated elements for generating the appearance of plants that were drawn from a variety of image websites. like Pinterest.
