Terrestrial Forecast

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This piece is interesting to me in part due to how it was created. I had built up quite a different-looking piece with many more layers and designs, and I believe there was even a human figure as the centerpiece at one point. But I just never quite liked how it looked. It was boring, rudimentary, dark, and muddled. I shelved the piece as a potentially-failed work in progress for a long time.

When I came back to it, I came with the intent of removing pieces rather than adding new ones. Sometimes to get more, you have to go with less. (I don’t know if that really makes sense, but it sounds like it’s wise.) Sure enough, when I took out all the bits I didn’t like, I was left with a piece that I knew I loved: Terrestrial Forecast. And now this has ended up being one of my personal favorites, and one of the more unique pieces of my later work.

To me this seems like a computer model of intersecting populations, like deer and wolves and trees, where there’s a delicate balance between all three always at play. Remove the wolves, and the deer run unchecked, eating all the trees, which then leads to the death of the deer population too. Or maybe it’s a model of some virus in a biological system. Maybe it’s turtles in a pond. Who knows!

I love running models like this because on the one hand, you get to learn about these balances, be more mindful about how everything is connected in real life, and recognize that seemingly simple solutions often lead to more issues.

And on the other hand, you get to play god over helpless digital turtles.

See the full resolution image of this piece below. What do these different colors and patterns represent in your simulation?

Buy this: Redbubble / Society6

Thank you.