Concept
This project explores bacterial life inside a petri dish through the logic of binary fission. I was drawn to the simplicity of exponential growth. One cell becomes two. Two become four. Four become eight. That pattern is mathematically precise, yet visually it can feel organic and alive.
The petri dish acts as both a laboratory setting and a contained world. From the perspective of the bacteria, this circular boundary is their entire universe. Growth is not aggressive. It is natural, repetitive, and inevitable.
Through this project I am trying to visualize how simple systems can produce complex spatial transformation. The tension between geometric symmetry and organic movement is central to the concept.
System Design
The system is built around exponential growth using 2ⁿ logic.
It starts with one cell at the center.
Each click doubles the generation.
Each generation forms a new ring.
Everything is placed radially so the growth feels intentional and structured. At the same time, each cell has slight motion driven by noise so it does not feel like a static diagram.
I also introduced generational color shifts and soft background fades so the system leaves trails, almost like activity inside a petri dish.
The interaction is simple. Click and it divides. The simplicity is important to me. I did not want complicated controls. I wanted the act of division to feel immediate.
Prototype 1
The first prototype was very minimal.
It only tested the binary fission logic and radial placement. No sound. No complex motion. Just structure.
Visually it looked clean but almost too perfect. It felt more like a scientific chart than something alive. But it helped me understand how strong the doubling pattern actually is. Even in its simplest form, it already had presence.
That prototype gave me confidence that the system itself was strong enough to build on.
Current Version
The current version feels more alive.
Each cell now wiggles slightly within a constrained space. The trails create a sense of time passing. Multiple colonies can grow at once, which makes the space feel like an ecosystem rather than a single event.
The aesthetic has shifted away from realistic biology and more toward a luminous, speculative petri dish. It feels less clinical and more atmospheric.
I am excited about how something so rule based can still feel organic.
Concerns
I am still figuring out how to balance symmetry and irregularity.
Sometimes the radial placement feels too perfect. Real biological systems are not perfectly spaced. I may experiment with slight offsets to make the growth feel less mechanical.
Performance also becomes a concern at higher generations. The exponential logic is beautiful, but it scales quickly.
I also want the motion to feel softer and less jittery. I want it to feel intentional, not random.
Improvements for Final Midterm
For the final submission, I want to:
Refine the motion so it feels more like soft bodies.
Experiment with subtle asymmetry.
Introduce multiple modes, possibly a strict geometric mode and a more organic mode.
Test higher resolution rendering for A3 printing.
I feel like the core idea is strong. Now it is about refinement and sensitivity.
AI Disclosure
I used AI briefly to help refine parts of the exponential logic and tune motion parameters while troubleshooting performance.