Botanical Ghosts

This is a work about growth, impermanence and decay. Ghostly plants and flowers grow around an invisible point, but they immediately begin to fade into the dark background and are soon replaced and covered by others. This process of accumulation and disappearance builds an ever-changing floral garland, or perhaps a funeral wreath.

The monochrome vegetation is part of a fictional flora, born out of random algorithmic combinations, and does not intend to reproduce any real species. It belongs to an “artificial nature” which, like so many worlds that the computers generate for us in movies, games, and virtual reality environments, is a convincing simulation of life, but it is not actually living. AI bots, virtual assistants and non-player characters are also representatives of the uncanny realm of the not-really-alive-but-looking-like-it, which are becoming an increasingly relevant presence in our everyday lives.

These plants and flowers speak about life as a process of incessant renovation, but also about death as the background that’s always there and makes life possible. This spectral vegetation seems to thrive precisely at the verge between both worlds.

This work is animated and will adapt to any screen size. It generates a never-ending ring of algorithmic foliage, which never repeats itself, and is different for each token. The image preview is triggered after the first five plants or flowers.
Made with p5.js

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