16 / 25·Generative Art
MYCELIUM
Fungal-network institute. A living network foraging across the page.
About the work
A research institute site where hyphae actually forage: growth agents wander, branch and steer toward nutrients you place by clicking. The network persists as it explores, so by the end of the page the visitor has grown their own specimen.
How it was made
Two canvases solved the central rendering problem: hyphae must accumulate while pulses and halos must not, so growth persists on one layer and effects clear on another. The reduced-motion branch runs the same simulation synchronously to its final form.
Like every work in the exhibition, it passed three full iteration passes — a visual critique, a deepening pass, and a QA pass at 390px with reduced motion and zero console errors — and documents itself in its own build guide.
Key features
- Agent-based hyphal growth with chemotropic steering
- Click-to-place nutrients the network senses and seeks
- Persistent growth canvas layered under a per-frame FX canvas
- Reduced-motion path that grows the full network instantly
Technology
- Agent simulation
- Canvas 2D
- Chemotropism model
In its own light
