Hybrid Theories

How amateur biohacking informs the award-winning VR project, SEED.

- Philippa Warr

There is one fantastic story about a botanist called [John James]—the self-described ‘Frankenstein of flowers’,” says Seed’s lead designer, Olie Kay. “He scraped the radium paint from watch dials and used this on his budding roses—don’t try this at home! He said that the best way to dispose of the radioactive material was to simply bury it in the farthest corner of the garden!”

Stories like that completely captured the imagination of Kay and the rest of All Seeing Eye. The small studio’s game, Seed, is a virtual reality project where you can breed and grow procedural plant life, either to complete missions or to enjoy a playful sandbox. As well as appealing to fans of pottering about in sheds, Seed scooped top honors (and $150,000) in a competition held by Wellcome and Epic Games which focused on using scientific ideas in entertaining games.

The concept of garage biotech—where amateur plant breeders were developing their own varieties of plants at home in their own sheds and greenhouses—was introduced to the studio by Dr Helen Anne Curry, a senior lecturer in the history of science at Cambridge University and a key collaborator on Seed. The specific terminology is relatively new—garage biologist, biohacker—but, as Curry points out, there is a long tradition of amateur experimental biology.

GERMINATING AN IDEA