[Meta]Morphosis, Insecta: Speculative Morphologies, Earth and Beyond
2024
Publication Design, Speculative Biology, Generative AI, Scientific Illustration
An ongoing speculative biology publication series. The inaugural volume, INSECTA, documents hypothetical insect species adapted to extraterrestrial conditions — presented as a natural history monograph complete with Linnaean taxonomy, field guide entries, and entomological plates generated through Midjourney. Each organism is reasoned from actual planetary conditions rather than invented for aesthetic effect.
The forms life takes on Earth are not the forms life takes. They are one set of answers to one set of planetary conditions — this gravity, this atmosphere, this evolutionary history. Change the conditions, and the solutions change entirely.
The work generates hypothetical morphologies across three classes of life — Insecta, Plantae, and Cnidaria — under both terrestrial and extraterrestrial conditions. The inaugural volume centres on Insecta: Earth's most species-rich class, whose radical morphological range provides the widest possible foundation for extrapolation. Two questions animate the project: how might insects' extraordinary adaptability manifest off-planet, and how does visualising these possibilities reframe our understanding of evolution here? The series deploys generative AI as a tool for biological imagination — to ask what, not to predict what will be.
The Publication
INSECTA: speculative adaptations & terran morphologies of earthlife is a square-format digital publication with a deep purple cover, designed to the typographic and structural conventions of a real scientific publication. Interior layouts combine two-column academic body text in classical serif type with entomological plate arrangements, Linnaean taxonomic classifications, and field guide documentation formats. The publication is indistinguishable in form from a natural history monograph.
The Timeline
The book opens with an evolutionary timeline — A Chronology of Insectan Transcension — structured using the Holocene Era (HE) dating system, footnoted: "some scholars propose using the Holocene Era (HE) system, which adds 10,000 years to the current year. In this system, the year 2024 CE would be written as 12024 HE." This is a real alternative calendar used in long-term thinking and deep-time discourse. The timeline runs through five phases — The Anthropogenic Ecological Transition, Mass Extinction Radiation, Biosyncretic Hybrid Ecosystems, The Interdimensional Bifurcation, The Hyperionic Omega Transition — and closes: AND BEYOND.
The Species
Five insect orders are documented: Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, and Hemiptera. Each speculative organism carries a complete field guide apparatus — Latin binomial name, common name, Planet of Origin (with specific exoplanet designation and ecological conditions), Habitat and Diet, Unique Features, Adaptations and Behaviors, full Linnaean classification, and approximate size and weight. Sideroxena nebulaphera / Cosmic Nebula Fly, 20cm, 50g, from PSR J1719-1438 b — a pulsar planet subjected to intense electromagnetic radiation and gravitational forces. Maxillaria gigantosoma, Kepler-186f megafauna, 7.82 m: the largest known beetle. Nanochryptes mikrovium, intracellular symbiont, 0.0025 mm: the smallest. Each entry is the result of reasoning from actual planetary conditions and evolutionary principles.
The research foundation is explicit: real scientific papers on convergent evolution, adaptive radiation, and life in extreme environments — deep-sea hydrothermal vents, hypersaline lakes, radiation-resistant organisms — are cited within the publication. The book includes a dedicated foreword section on the use of AI, transparent about generative AI's role in producing the visual output and the methodology behind it.
The Image-Making
Each organism is produced through iterative prompting in Midjourney. The prompt operates in four layers: compositional staging that mimics entomological mounting conventions; a taxonomic tension between real Linnaean orders and speculative entities; morphological direction at the level of body-plan rather than surface; and a stylisation mode that produces documentary rather than illustrative output. Full prompt and annotation below.
Generative Parameters
"on a plain black background, top down view of 1 exquisitely intricate lepidopteran alien entity, extraterrestrial, ethereal and anomalous morphologies, labyrinthine somatology, speculative xenofiction, exobiology, preternatural, chromatic aesthetics evoking cosmic chill, 8k, 16k, uhd --style raw --v 6.0"
Four decisions in the prompt structure:
Entomological staging: black background, top-down view, single specimen — mimicking the mounting convention of natural history collections. Positions output as specimen, not artwork.
Taxonomic tension: "lepidopteran" is a real Linnaean order; "alien entity" is speculative. The pairing holds the model between biological accuracy and extraterrestrial possibility.
Morphological direction: "labyrinthine somatology" — the study of a body's organisation — directs complexity at the level of body-plan rather than surface pattern.
Documentary mode: "--style raw" disables Midjourney's default stylisation. Without it, the images look like concept art. With it, they look like specimens.
scroll to top