ABSTRACT
The design research project investigates design protocols of control, emergence, calibration, through a framework of various growth experiments that explore the patterns, forms, and morphologies of living organisms. It adapts bio-inspired form finding methods using E. coli bacteria and Physarum polycephalum, also known as slime mold, a single celled organism that can aggregate together to produce efficient, multi-scalar spatial structures when foraging for food. The project investigates opportunities for living systems to provide biological data sets for the generation of bio-inspired form. This chapter explores the aesthetic and navigational ability of the slime mold growth behavior in different configurations of 2D and 3D printed scaffolds coated in agar and strategically placing oat flakes as nutrient to understand patterns of growth. Building upon knowledge from the growth experiments, a series of computational models were generated to simulate the behavior of the slime mold growth patterns, self-organizing qualities based on a clear set of rules.
