Dirt Politics

Location Los Angeles, CA

Year 2025

Instructor William Virgil

Software Midjourney HitEm3D Zbrush

Description

Overview Developed for the SCI-Arc Visual Studies core curriculum, this project explores the concept of "entanglement" by treating a living houseplant as a collaborator rather than a passive subject. The process involved a semester-long cycle of biological care and radical digital mutation, resulting in a "post-natural" organism that blurs the line between the organic and the synthetic.

In an exercise where the plant's survival directly impacted the final grade, I am proud to report my collaborator is still very much alive and thriving.

Observation & Capture The project began with the physical care and digital 3D scanning of a real houseplant. This scan provided the base geometry—the "skeletal" framework for the coming transformation.

AI Hybridization Using Midjourney, I generated speculative appendages by hybridizing the plant's natural structures with the anatomy of a snake, crab, and centipede. This created a series of "monstrous" leaf clusters and limbs that maintained a strange biological logic while feeling decidedly alien.

Mesh Generation & Sculpting I translated these AI-generated images into 3D meshes using HitEm3D. These disparate parts were then brought into ZBrush, where I "grafted" and stitched them onto the original plant scan. The goal was to create a single, coherent organism where the transition from plant to animal felt seamless and intentional.

Physical Manifestation The final digital sculpture was 3D printed. I spent significant time post-processing the model—sanding and finishing the surface to move it away from the "stepped" look of a print and toward the high-fidelity finish of a gallery object.

A note from me

[A detail from caring for the plant or making the sculpture that did not make it into the formal description.]