BichEden: ParaDoxa animates ecosystems as living storylines — part-science, part-spirit, part-archive. Exhibited as a large-scale, screen-based installation composed of computer-generated 3D animations, the project builds portals for climate storytelling about ecosystem regeneration in Mexico’s Coral Reef, Alpine, and Rainforest regions. Virtual ethnobotanical research, regenerative acoustic ecology research, and Red List databases on endangered organisms inform the computer-generated artifacts, grounding the project in real-world environmental concerns.
Intending to expand worldwide understanding of ecological interdependence, “BichEden: ParaDoxa” engages in climate storytelling informed by efforts to regenerate Oceanic, Alpine, and Rainforest ecosystems in Mexico.
At the project’s base is virtual ethnobotanical research in Red List databases that catalog endangered flora and fauna impacting bioecological food chains in these ecosystems. The soundscapes are informed by regenerative acoustic ecology research that seeks to understand the impacts of human generated noise on different ecologies. The resulting computer-generated ‘still life’ artifacts’ re-imagine species interactions in restored sites.
“BichEden: Oceanic Banquet” imagines new colonies of organisms in a restored Great Mayan Reef; “BichEden: Rainforest” imagines a reconditioned Mayan Forest informed by Lacandon cosmology and curative herbology; and “BichEden: Alpine” imagines adaptable organisms that sleep and come back to life when conditions are favorable in the Iztaccíhuatl volcano.
The work evokes alternative worlds that enmesh counterfactual sequences and fictional formations drawing from biology and ecology, and from mythical, spiritual, and historical indicators. These “science fiction” readings retain enough actuality to make them plausible while underscoring the tremendous influence of electronic technologies and the sciences in shaping individual and cultural perceptions made visible in expanded understandings of materialities and realities.
The project constitutes an artistic investigation into the possibilities of precomputed generative environments applied to 3D animation. Starting from initial models captured through photogrammetry, the project involved the complete digital reconstruction of the pieces, rethinking their structure and behavior through procedural logic. The work integrates a combination of bone systems, inverse kinematics (IK), physics simulations, procedural deformers via Geometry Nodes, algorithmic controllers based on noise and wave functions, and generative shaders designed to dynamically produce textures and surface properties.
These components enable the creation of a complex computational ecosystem where the digital models acquire organic behaviors, autonomous dynamics, and non-linear transformations arising from the interaction between predefined parameters and procedural processes. “BichEden: ParaDoxa” thus positions itself within contemporary practices of digital generative art, interrogating notions of control, autonomy, unpredictability, and aesthetic emergence within virtual environments. The work proposes a reflection on the boundaries between conscious aesthetic planning and the capacity of computational systems to generate emergent forms and behaviors, situating itself at the intersection of assisted animation, procedural simulation, and algorithmic generation of digital matter.
Mariel Martinez currently collaborates with Pat Badani on the “BichEden” project using a range of technologies including photogrammetry and 3D models to explore the edge of physical and digital realms within food chains. Mariel is a New York based computer scientist and co-founder of artpoet.io. She specializes in technology consulting, working with artists in creating projects based on emerging technologies.
