Author: asa8004

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.

Concept + Inspiration

This project was created in response to the assignment requirement to use Memo Akten’s exploration of Simple Harmonic Motion as a starting point. The goal was to understand how oscillation can function as a generative system rather than just a repetitive mechanical movement.

What I found most interesting in Memo Akten’s work is how simple sine functions can create complexity when layered together. Instead of treating harmonic motion as a physics simulation, I treated it as a compositional structure. I used multiple oscillators with different frequencies and phase shifts so that interference patterns would emerge naturally from the system.

Rather than keeping the study abstract, I translated the oscillatory behavior into a tidepool ecosystem. Each anemone is driven by overlapping harmonic functions that simulate tidal pull, organic sway, and micro-movements within the tentacles. A slower oscillator controls the bloom intensity, which creates a bioluminescent effect that feels ecological instead of mechanical.

I was mainly inspired by their bioluminescence and the way they sway so beautifully in the water, this is the image the drew the majority of the inspiration and what I’ve tried to mimic. However when I was done, I realized that this looks like the small lights in the new near by gas station “the hub”, makes me wonder if the inspo was more subconscious??

Code I Am Particularly Proud Of

One section of code I am particularly proud of is the multi-layer harmonic interference that drives the tentacle motion:

// I used AI to help achieve this :)
let oscA = sin(this.t * 1.55 + p);
let oscB = sin(this.t * 0.92 + p * 0.7 + this.phase);
let oscC = sin(this.t * 0.45 + p * 1.9);

let sway = (0.75 * oscA + 0.45 * oscB + 0.25 * oscC + this.current) * 0.65;

I used AI to help refine this blending logic. My intention was to create layered oscillation instead of a single sine-driven movement. The AI-assisted refinement helped structure the interference in a way that felt balanced without becoming chaotic.

This section is important to me because it shifts the system from predictable motion to something that feels organic. By combining oscillators with different frequencies and phase relationships, the movement becomes more ecological and less mechanical while still remaining mathematically grounded in Simple Harmonic Motion.

Milestones and Challenges

The first milestone was building a single anemone driven by one primary harmonic function. The focus at this stage was verifying that the tentacle sway behaved consistently and that amplitude, frequency, and phase shifts were functioning correctly.

Challenge: The motion initially felt mechanical and repetitive. With only one oscillator driving the movement, the behavior was too predictable and visually flat. This prototype helped me understand the limitations of a single harmonic source.

[gif to be added but the upload time is sooooo looooooonnnnggg :/]

instead here is a video:

The second milestone introduced multiple oscillators and expanded the system into a grid of anemones. This is where interference patterns began to emerge. I layered harmonic functions with different frequencies and phase offsets to create more complex sway.

Challenge: Balancing complexity without losing control. When too many oscillators were layered equally, the movement became chaotic. I had to adjust weight values so the system felt organic rather than noisy.

This stage also introduced the idea of a global tide and a directional current controlled by mouse movement.

Reflection and Ideas for Future Work

Through this project, I began to understand how Simple Harmonic Motion can function as a structural system rather than just a visual effect. Layering oscillators changed the behavior significantly, and small adjustments in frequency and phase created noticeable shifts in organic quality. The process reinforced how sensitive generative systems are to parameter balance.

One of the main insights was that complexity does not require complicated formulas. It requires intentional relationships between simple ones. When I reduced or reweighted oscillators, the motion became more coherent. When I over-layered them, the system lost clarity. This balance became central to the final result.

For future development, I would like to explore local interaction between anemones instead of having them behave independently. Introducing neighbor-based influence could allow wave propagation across the field. I am also interested in integrating audio input so harmonic frequencies respond dynamically to sound.

Finally, I would experiment with scaling the system for projection or installation, where viewer proximity could influence tide intensity or bloom cycles. Expanding the system spatially would shift it from a screen-based study into an environmental experience.

Concept

This project explores how small particles in nature respond to invisible forces in their environment. I was inspired by drifting pollen, spores, and algae suspended in water. These natural elements do not move randomly. They respond to forces such as gravity, air currents, and nearby bodies.

Using the attractor and mover structure introduced in class, I reinterpreted the system as an ecological field. The attractors function as environmental centers of influence. The movers behave like pollen particles that continuously respond to these forces. Instead of presenting a physics demonstration, the system is used to generate an evolving visual pattern.

The visual accumulation of trails transforms the physical simulation into a generative design.

Code Highlight

One section I am particularly proud of is the gravitational force calculation inside the attractor. This formula controls how each particle responds to distance and mass, and it was important to balance it so that movement felt stable but still dynamic.

This part connects directly to the force and acceleration principles explored in class.

let force = p5.Vector.sub(this.pos, mover.pos);

let distance = constrain(force.mag(), 20, 250);
force.normalize();

let strength = (this.G * this.mass * mover.mass) / (distance * distance);
force.mult(strength);

return force;

Code

Milestones and Challenges

Inspiration

Concept

For this assignment, I chose to simulate the movement of a moth attracted to a lamp, inspired by how insects behave around light sources in nature. When observing moths, their motion is rarely direct or smooth; instead, it feels hesitant, wobbly, and slightly chaotic.

The goal of this sketch was to recreate that behavior using only acceleration-based forces, without relying on complex visuals. The personality of the moth comes entirely from how it moves rather than how it looks.

The lamp acts as a constant attractor, while a subtle wobble force gives the moth an organic, fluttering quality.

Code Highlight

The part of the code I am most proud of is the wobble (flutter) force, which adds personality to the moth’s movement without making it feel random:

this.wobble += 0.1;
let flutter = createVector(
  cos(this.wobble),
  sin(this.wobble)
);
flutter.mult(0.03);
this.applyForce(flutter);

This small oscillating acceleration creates a natural, insect-like flutter. Combined with the attraction to the lamp, it makes the moth feel alive and slightly unpredictable, rather than robotic. And, this is where I used ChatGPT’s to help.

The Code

Reflection & Future Work

This project helped me better understand how simple rules can create believable natural motion. Using acceleration alone forced me to think carefully about how each force affects the behavior over time.

What worked well:

• The combination of attraction and wobble felt natural and readable.
• Limiting speed and force helped keep the movement smooth.
• Keeping visuals simple allowed the motion to stand out.

If I were to continue developing this sketch, I would:

• Add a “panic zone” near the lamp where the moth starts circling instead of approaching directly.
• Introduce multiple moths with slightly different parameters to give each one a unique personality.
• Experiment with a pulsing or moving light source to see how the behavior adapts.

The Computational Beauty of Nature – Ch1

The concepts explored in this reading were very central to how we view things and analyze not only nature but also human-made systems like the stock market. What left a strong impression on me is how important it is to analyze interaction in order to truly understand what something is. At the beginning of this chapter, Flake introduces the idea of reductionism, which is the process of reducing something into increments to better understand its true nature.

In my understanding, we are invited to look at this from a rather “scientific” lens in order to see how we could apply a similar concept in computing. This leaves me with the impression that it is very important for us to first understand how dissecting something in terms of meaning can then help us introduce that understanding to a computer.

The Concept

My concept is inspired by fireflies. Having never experienced them, I have always been curious about what it would feel like to interact with one, so why not simulate it?

For the sake of simulating human-to-firefly interaction, I did not want the firefly to simply float around randomly. I wanted it to follow the mouse around the sketch in order to translate a sense of curiosity between both the firefly and the user.

I implemented a Gaussian random walk (List 1) and mapped the motion to color and brightness to create a firefly glow effect (List 2).

Code that I am proud of

let glow = 220 + randomGaussian() * 20;
glow = constrain(glow, 140, 255);

I’m proud of this part of the code because I wanted the firefly’s glow to feel as natural as possible. Using Gaussian randomness makes the brightness fluctuate gently instead of jumping unpredictably, and constraining the values keeps the light within a realistic range.

The Sketch

Reflection

Initially, I wanted to mimic bacteria and binary fission, but that idea felt a bit too ambitious at this stage. I decided to step back and focus on exploring motion in a simpler way, which led me to this firefly concept. I was interested in creating something that felt organic and calm rather than complex.

For future work, I wanted to place the firefly over an image of a forest, but I realized that doing so would either cause the firefly’s trail to disappear or require the background to fade over time. I think finding a way to balance a real forest image with the artificial movement of the firefly could be an interesting direction to explore further.