GMU:Different Worlds/Paula Franke

22. 04. 21 The first day with physarum polycephalum was good. It felt like there was someone else living and thinking in my room apart from me, although I did have some plants before. I've been thinking about what differences there are between the slime mold and my plants, and then what differences there are between me and the other two. It grew quite a bit over night (1-2cm) and me and my flatmates were really impressed that it actually worked. I filled some agar medium into the three petri dishes that were still empty. Tonight I'll put new oatflakes in the petri dishes and divide the slime mold into two new petri dishes.

24. 04. 21 Now all five petri dishes are filled, the first two grew quite a bit (they are about 3-4 cm wide) and the "younger" ones are also thriving, just one doesn't seem to grow at all at the moment. It feels like Physarum Polycephalum becomes a character to me, who can become miffy, when it doesn't grow, struggles (the white mold I encountered and just scaped off) and has really good days, that make it grow a lot.

26.04. 21 It became so big! Almost filles up the whole petri dish now. But one of them developed spores (I think) and I'm unsure about what will happen next? Should maybe have payed more attention during the meetings... The "younger ones are also growing, some faster, some slower - I can't really determine why. Since I gave all of them the same treatment, this instance makes me wonder about whether this could just be a coincidence, which made me philosophize about coincidence in general and whether it exists at all.