Neither the digital animation nor the tree form have a ‘real’ scale. Both are derived from data. The digital animation represents a theory of the way that stem cells develop and divide to create other specialised cells. Their changing colours indicate the degree of specialism, or differentiation, that they attain with every generation. The tree form is also derived from data ‘grown’ initially in the cartesian grid of a virtual 3D drawing-board. This data, presented physically is then chemically ‘grown’ through crystalisation. The crystal tree alludes to a different notion of time, more particularly to the observer and our ability to anticipate. We understand that it has been growing at a rate we cannot perceive and that there was once an initial time of bare string ‘branches’, and that it will continue to grow in our absence till it is encumbered by crystals.

Photograph of tank taken by Philip Vine © 2004