Hortus Luminis
P5JS · HTML · Experience Design
An interactive exploration of JG Ballard’s haunting short story.
In the famous short story by JG Ballard “The Garden of Time” (which informed the distasteful theme of the 2024 Met Gala), the author illustrates this noble couple living in their luscious mansion, as they try to escape the attack of the violent working class looming over the horizon.
To stop - and reverse - the advance of this violent crowd, count Axel picks these magical crystal flowers from his garden, that can turn back time. However, the number of flowers in his garden is growing smaller by the day, and the count and his wife eventually surrender to the unstoppable force of this violent crowd that invades their home in the final passage of the story, as they turn to stone.
Inspired by this concept, I developed an algorithmic visualiser in HTML that illustrates these themes for a digital audience.
Inspired by the work of teamLab, Hortus Luminis is a digital render of all my favourite flowers. When you hover over the blooming flowers, they explode and gradually start to dissolve, gradually fading into the glowy background.