Water Lily Invasion

Water Lily Invasion - Hong Kong, near Star Ferry Terminal, 2013. Screenshot by DAW International, SIGGRAPH ASIA 2013
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Water Lily Invasion - Münster Ferry crossing, Rhine River, Basel, Switzerland
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Water Lily Invasion - Waterlily Invasion filmed in Singapore
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Water Lily Invasion - KloHäuschen München
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As global water levels and temperatures rise, plants and animals are mutating to adapt. Strange new creatures are arising at the interstices between plant and animal, questioning and transgressing the boundaries of what is considered to be reactive flora or active fauna.

In 2013, one such form was observed to follow the route of the Star Ferries between Hong Kong and Kowloon. Apparently sensitive to the mediated human gaze, a seemingly small, innocuous water lily can enlarge to engulf viewers who look at it in the display of their mobile app. It is hypothesized that it feeds off energy, not only that dissipated by the ferry boats, but also that of the human cargo and their electronic devices. Until now viewers have reported feeling no effects other than a temporary fibrillation. Scientists worry however that future mutations could cross boundaries between insentient plant and sentient, perhaps even carnivorous life forms.

The rare photograph above was made by DAW International, which discovered the invasion during the Virtuale media art exhibit at SIGGRAPH Asia 2013.

Then, in January 2014, this amateur video was made in the courtyard of the School of Art, Design and Media of the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The invasive water lilies seemed to have followed currents in the South China Sea ("Nanyang") to Singapore, and made their way inland through the water mains.

Much more worrisome were the first signs of the water lily invasion in Europe - appearing in Basel, Switzerland in June 2014, during Art Basel at the Münster and St. Albans/Wild Maa ferry crossings on the Rhine River. (The Virtualle Switzerland - first biennial of virtual art - discovered the infestation and offered guided viewing tours on the ferries.)

It is unclear how the plant propagated to this unlikely location, but the global financial connections between Hong Kong and Switzerland could provide a vector - the infestation is following the money, and money is following the art ...

The "follow the money" theory had to be discarded a couple months later, however, as in October 2014 the Water Lily Invasion was discovered on dry land - in and around the KloHäuschen in Munich, an art space in an abandoned public toilet.

Scientists theorize that the invasives came along hidden water lines through the earth and have burst out of the pipes that once fed into the toilets. This could be a very dangerous mutation, as they are no longer restricted to water and are clearly following human media art activity - the Water Lilies invaded during the KloHäuschen Biennial.