Artist collaboration: beautiful slime colonies in Petri dishes

[Dan Power]

Hey Slime friends

I’m an Australian artist/science communicator currently working on an exhibition on soil, fungus, slime and insects. I’ve been building up to a work that explores de-centralised intelligence in ant super colonies, and what better way to design it then collaborating with SLIME MOULDS!

Unfortunately, my deadline is looming and my slime cultivation skills need a lot of work. I am searching for slime-enthusiasts who would be willing to let me use their photos of colonies (preferably Physarum species) growing in round Petri dishes as references for my work.
Namely, 3x small oil paintings of slime moulds and 1 large illustration of an ant super colony that maps the intelligent foraging behaviour of a particularly clever/ beautiful slime mould -see the bellow concept sketch. All submissions welcome - with image credit provided for the final work but I need to get moving on this ASAP. 

massive thanks, and happy sliming! 

[Vicente Lopes]

Hi Dan,

I'm willing to help with the source material!

Let me know the specifications you might have in mind.

[Dan Power]

Hi Vicente, thank you for your interest and quick reply!

I would love a sample of 10-20 happy slime mould colonies, ideally growing in round containers or Petri dishes with a few dense clusters or nodes linked together with some main arteries and fan-like foraging patterns. Any images that you feel show slime at its smartest - that is - displaying an elegant, efficient growth pattern, preferably without any obstacles (or mazes). 

I plan to select 3 images that are particularly aesthetic and make some small oil paintings, and then choose the best to use as the layout for the ant colony artwork. I’d like to get going ASAP so your help is appreciated!

[Vicente Lopes]

I've currently started 12 circular colonies with oats spread out in varying random and geometric presets (triangle, square, pentagon, etc...).

Later this week, I'll photograph them once they look good and developed!

Vicente

[Dan Power]

That would be incredible thank you! Feel free to send through any photos of previous colonies, - especially those with a more organic layout - but I’m excited to see the geometric patters too!

[Vicente Lopes]

Here is one of the samples.

I have 12 photos of different colonies, I think I was a bit late so maybe 1 day of growth is better than 2 days. Let me know how I can send the other photos and what you think.

Vicente

[Dan Power]

This looks great! Great timing as I’m about to start on small oil painting studies and can use this one! I will retouch/ edit the photos slightly for the actual paintings so I’m not too concerned about the timing, I plan to include the older white growth and fresher yellow growth.

Would you be happy to email them to me? Or include them in a shared google folder (unfortunately I don’t use drop box but I don’t need crazy resolution): [e-mail] 

Thank you again for your assistance on this, would you feel okay about sending me your full name and the name of your city (+any other details you think are important, qualifications etc) so I can credit your work?

[Vicente Lopes]

Hi Dan,

Just sent the e-mail, let me know if you got it!

Vicente

[Dan Power]

Hello! I got the photos and they’re great, thank you so much!