HETEROSIS

Combine genetic algorithms with blockchain technology to create dynamic digital art, promoting the hybridization of mutable digital flowers, issued in the form of tokens.

Alex Morgan & Daniel Reed / Digital Bloom / Solana Art / 2025

The art project is composed of a collection of breedable, dynamic flora that exists in the digital wallets of their respective owners and collectively in the 'Greenhouse' - a virtual rendition, post-apocalyptic space of London's National Gallery.

Heterosis is an unprecedented flower hybridization experience in which participants can cultivate their bespoke animated flowers. Collectors are invited to become breeders or collaborative artists, creating increasingly exotic and elaborate blooms, either for their own pleasure or as means towards predicting a future value and stimulating speculation.

Each token functions as a seed embedded with its genetic code. Flower hybridization occurs when a collector's flower's genetic code is combined with another's genes. From this union, an updated hybrid blossoms, adopting attributes from both parent flowers. In addition to the visible characteristics of each parent flower, the new blossom may also inherit invisible recessive genes or "hidden traits" which contribute to the flower's rarity.

Additional materials are available at the HeterosisOnSol

Heterosis | Infographics

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After purchasing tokens, each collector receives a Heterosis flower with unique DNA and a combination of traits. The collectible's primary look is the result of random luck. Each flower has a unique title generated by AI, using words from 'The Library of Babel' a short story by Jorge Luis Borges.

The owner of a Heterosis flower can select any other flower in the collection as a second parent, and to hybridize, they must pay that second parent's owner a fee.

When the child flower is generated, the owner can decide to either replace their current flower with the new generation or keep the original one. The second parent flower is not affected in any way by this hybridization process.

Partner collections and projects give Heterosis flowers their unique traits. If an owner has a partner collectible in their wallet, unique features may show up on their flowers when they breed them.

Initially, the flowers in the collection have only a few basic traits. But through the hybridization process, collectors can discover new rules that activate mutations and unlock new species and advanced characteristics.