Environment

Riding on a flying ant

How did springtails get to populate every continent in the world? These wildly successful, abundant arthropods have no wings, they are too tiny to hop or crawl over long distances, and they dry out easily. So, they hitchhiked on flying insects. No humans have witnessed this event, but it has been discovered in the fossil record. Springtails are found entombed in amber, with their antennae clinging to the bodies of flying insects like termites and ants.

Distribution of Electrosminthuridia helibionta springtails on termite and ant hosts within 16-million-year-old Dominican amber: (A) amber specimen; (B) illustration showing the location of springtails on social insects. Arrow – inflow of the tree resin before consolidation. Scale bar – 0.5 cm. Image credit: N. Robin & P. Barden.

This scientific discovery inspired the first part of the story of “Belonging to Soil”. In VR, the participant rides on the back of a flying ant, experiencing what it might be like to be a springtail, traveling to new lands.

Luke Stephens, our character designer and animator, created the flying ant and springtail. Mayen McClain created this scene and the ant’s flightpath, while JT Thrash has programmed the behaviors, Josh Rodenberg designed the sound, and Shadrick Addy is helping us navigate the challenges of Unity and VR.  We are still working out how to jump without falling through the simulated world… if you watch the video to the end you’ll see this!

Underground environment

Mayen McClain has been working on the underground scene; including plant roots, soil, minerals, bacteria, and mycelia. To indicate that this scene is close to the top of the soil, there are porous holes that let light in through the top of the soil chamber. These photos are taken from inside the Oculus VR headset.

This is the view from outside of the world, the black lines at the top are the springtail antennae.

Video captured from inside VR. Shows the animated root growing, plus moving around in the chamber, over rocks, streptomyces bacteria (the blue parts), and among the roots. The tunnels that are blocked off now, will eventually lead to additional scenes and environments.

Introduction video

Our team created a video to describe our Belonging to Soil project in process. We discuss our inspirations, the story, the tools, environment, characters, and interaction design.

We created it as part of Shadrick Addy’s larger presentation on his work and history, presented at a Hopkins Hybrid Arts Lab event in the Department of Design. It is very inspiring, check it out: Making Lemonade: My Design Life.