Exploring the benefits of heterogeneous colonial organisms by looking at how they may handle a Zombie Apocalypse

The Research

When I first began to dig into the concept of colonial organisms, I was struck by the idea that an organism can either be made up of individuals that are genetic clones or each other, or  heterogenous individuals. In the heterogenous animals, I found that they could also be polymorphic, in that each individual would have a function or a job that the evolved to perform for the greater good of the colony. Some of the individuals would have evolved to find food, others would have evolved to protect the colony. I also came across an idea of Chimera Colonies, where colonies that may not be genetically identical conjoin to former a larger colony. There is some research that suggests that perhaps chimera colonies can grow larger, and live longer because of their diversity.

My aim is to create a guide that helps my audience understand a general concept that diversity in our environment is a good thing. In the specific case of colonial organisms, diversity leads to a longer lifespan. With Halloween coming up, and spooky things in mind, I inevitably made the connection between a heterogeneous colonial organism, and a humans living in a colony, trying to survive the Zombie Apocalypse. In my guide, the first scenario shows a human colony where all of the individuals are farmers, and do not end up not surviving a zombie attack. In the second scenario, this colony has individuals who are farmers, but also has protectors, builders, doctors, etc. This colony is able to survive long when the zombies attack.

The Form

A lot of the information I found about colony organisms was about aquatic organisms specifically, and for me, this conjures up images of moving particles deep in the ocean, crashing waves, motion. I wanted to bring some sort of motion into my guide. I also had hopes of creating an analog experience for my audience. Partially this was motivated by selfish reasons, because I spend so much time at a computer, and wanted to create something with my hands. But also, the ideas of jobs, occupations, survival feel like very tactile concepts, and it would be great to guide the audience to those ideas by allowing them to physically move something with their hands. This lead me to the idea of creating a pop-up book. Specifically I was interested in creating a book with sliding elements, to recreate the movements of organisms in water, or people running from zombies.

The creation of pop-up elements was a bit more technical than I realized from the start. I also realized that in order to pull off the atmospheric effect of a Zombie Apocalypse, the book would need a specific aesthetic. I decided to start this process by creating some designs in Figma, and realized that a clickable prototype may be a great way to explore my ideas quickly, and allow for faster iteration. This clickable prototype is where I ended up, and and feel like it can now be used as a framework for either a web site, or a pop-up book.

The Guide

Since the guide is currently a clickable prototype in Figma, you will need visit the Figma to explore more. However here are two screenshots of the two colonies that are represented in the prototype.

The References and Brainstorming Documents

• References on both the colonial organisms, and the form can be found in this google doc.
• Brainstorming Documents:
  • google doc of notes from my references
  • a figma doc where I gathered ideas