== Can an organism form an emotional bond with us? ==
== Project summarized: == Everything around us is alive. The forest, the park, the river. Unfortunately, we often forget this far too quickly. We keep striving for simplicity and digitalization, but forget the living beings around us. With my project "An Intelligent Organism Changes Our Perception" I want to investigate if an Intelligent Organism can build an emotional bond with a human being and if this human being thereby values the nature around him more.
Background:
When I first saw Physarum, I was somewhat put off by its shape and color. The association (See part []) with my memories triggered (disgust, amazement, etc.). However, when I saw the first progress in the growth of Physarum, (See day...) this perception changed abruptly. Whenever I didn't see Physarum for a long time, I went as soon as possible to the place where it was stored and checked how it was doing. Exactly the same development I saw with my friend who was also a little bit deterred by Physarum at the beginning, but obviously got closer and closer. So she started to send photos and to look after him. This observation gave me the idea that at first we associate Physarum in our mind with negative terms and images, but with the time we took care of him, the emotional attachment and thus the appreciation towards an organism increased.
My process
07 May:
Today I got two Petri dishes from the Biolab. One of them was empty, the other one contained an old Physarum.
When I arrived at home I cleaned the Petri dishes first. From dear Anna I got a sample of Physarum. (She also gave me a dried sample). After I cleaned the petri dishes, I watched the videos on how to cook medium. I have to honestly say that I am a little excited to grow my own organism. Of course, I read up on Physarum polycephalum on the internet. After that, I first watched the science fiction movie Blob - Horror without a Name.
Medium in the petri dishes (I was amazed how fast it solidifies).
To start simply I wanted to let my Physarum grow "normally" first. So I fed it with normal oatmeal and put it in my old fridge (this one doesn't cool anymore) overnight.
08.05:
The next morning I was very surprised to see that he had grown. It was very exciting to see the change. Pretty fast. It feels a little like taking responsibility for him.
I wondered if he would grow faster if it was warmer for him. I put him on the windowsill for that.
File:6A0A0A42-1821-45EE-B7A5-7F065A397230.jpeg
But it turned out that he grows best when he is in the dark refrigerator. I have wrapped the petri dishes in a cloth so that it is a little warmer.
08.05: I have now spread the oatmeal a bit so that Physarum grows in width.
File:3C0D36F5-AFDA-4C27-A68D-612D232A8E3A.jpeg|400px
09.05:
It turns out that he grows pretty fast and spreads out to get to his food.
File:822A82BA-3C53-4F66-BFFE-F33ACF9BD16A.jpeg|400px
Both samples are growing fast and you can see that he is starting to "eat" the other oatmeal piles. It is exciting to see Physarum spreading. Every morning after I got up, the first thing I did was check for Physarum. I have noticed that I have started to develop an emotional attachment to it. I take care of it and talk to it, even if that sounds strange. I give him food and have created a place for him to be. It feels good to take care of him.
09.05. Evening: It's crazy, it was a sunny day and I was outside the whole time. When I came back Physarum grew super fast.
Time for more space and a new home: Inspired by Anna, I wanted to create a bigger home for Physarum. For this, like Anna, I took a box and lined it with baking paper.
In the sunny weather I ate an ice cream. I then took the empty jar to grow Physarum in it. Now I could use the dried sample from Anna in the jar to see if already dried Physarum comes back to life.
Also, the labyrinths are now coming into use. I placed them in the big box and put oatmeal at the exits.
10.05:
I was very excited that the dried sample has grown. There has also been progress in the big box. Physarum has also grown in the maze. In the evening of the day Physarum it already almost managed to grow out of the maze.
11.05:
I no, when I looked after Physarum today, I saw that in the one sample in the petri dish it unfortunately started to mold, apparently there was too much moisture in the petri dish. Well - time for a new experiment: Now I wanted to try to feed Physarum with something unusual. For this I placed chips and sugar in the petri dish.
But also in the big box progress was shown. Physarum made it out of the maze.
Unfortunately, I forgot to put medium in the one maze, that's why Physarum didn't grow either... unfortunately.
12.05:
Ok that was fast! I looked in the fridge this morning to see how much Physarum has grown and I noticed that it has grown beyond the petri dish. I was a little surprised and also a little amazed that it's happening so fast after all. Pretty cool... But also with the chips something has happened, Physarum has grown over the one piece of the chips, but it doesn't really look like he likes it.
But things are also progressing quite a bit on the jar, as you can see Physarum has grown up the entire jar. I was a bit surprised, because there is no medium at these places.
Also in the box it goes forward, Physarum spreads more and more and is already much further than the labyrinth.
In the one Petri dish, it really takes off. The Physarum is growing over the edge. When I wanted to take it out of the refrigerator, I had to pull it off with some force so that it would detach from the refrigerator.
13.05:
Physarum continues to grow in the box as well.
14.05:
For an idea i thought it would be cool to colour the physarum. So i tooked some oat flakes and coloured them blue.
20.05:
Today there was a big progress, Physarum has turned green.
At the beginning when Physarum grew over the oat flakes, it did not change color. I was a little disappointed. But I thought I'd let it grow a bit and see what happened. But when Physarum grew out of the petri dish, it turned green. Then I was really happy.