Cryptogamic life

The Spore

Descriptor: Potential carried beyond its point of origin.

Tags: dispersal, emergence, propagation

Notice: What small sign of possible growth first drew your attention in this image?

Relation: How might this site carry life, matter or influence beyond its immediate surface?

Unresolved: What future condition is suggested here but not yet visible?

The Colony

Descriptor: Individual organisms acting as a collective body.

Tags: community, accumulation, growth

Notice: Where does this image show many small presences becoming one visible body?

Relation: How does collective growth alter the meaning of the wall, ground or object it occupies?

Unresolved: What forms of cooperation or dependency remain hidden at this scale?

The Acrocarp (moss clump)

Descriptor: Upright growth seeking light and exposure.

Tags: ascent, focus, signal

Notice: Where does growth appear to rise, point or signal from the surface?

Relation: How does vertical growth negotiate exposure, light, air and vulnerability?

Unresolved: What is this upright form reaching towards, and what might limit it?

The Pleurocarp (moss carpet)

Descriptor: Lateral growth spreading across available surfaces.

Tags: network, connection, expansion

Notice: Where does growth seem to travel sideways rather than upwards?

Relation: How does lateral spread connect cracks, textures, edges or materials across the site?

Unresolved: Where might this spreading relation continue beyond the photograph?

The Rhizome

Descriptor: Hidden pathways linking distant points.

Tags: connection, underground, mobility

Notice: What unseen connection does this image invite you to imagine?

Relation: How might this place be linked to other sites through water, roots, spores, footsteps or infrastructure?

Unresolved: Which connections are implied but cannot be directly seen?

The Mycelium

Descriptor: Distributed intelligence sustained through exchange.

Tags: memory, communication, reciprocity

Notice: What pattern of exchange or dependency can be sensed in this image?

Relation: How does this site suggest communication between organisms, materials, moisture and decay?

Unresolved: What forms of intelligence or response are operating below ordinary attention?

The Lichen

Descriptor: Multiple lives sharing a single form.

Tags: symbiosis, interface, endurance

Notice: Where does the image show life as a composite rather than a single thing?

Relation: How does this shared form mediate between air, mineral surface, weather and time?

Unresolved: What partnerships are present here that resist easy naming?

The Liverwort

Descriptor: Ancient life thriving in fragile conditions.

Tags: dampness, sensitivity, ancestry

Notice: What fragile or easily missed life is this image asking you to notice?

Relation: How do dampness, shelter and disturbance shape the possibility of this life continuing?

Unresolved: What does this small presence suggest about older ecological histories in the city?

The Fern

Descriptor: Memory unfolding through repeated forms.

Tags: recursion, ancestry, unfolding

Notice: Where does the image show a form unfolding, repeating or branching?

Relation: How does repetition link growth, memory, structure and the conditions of the site?

Unresolved: What earlier stage or future development is folded into this present form?

The Sporophyte

Descriptor: The structure that carries reproduction forward.

Tags: transmission, continuation, release

Notice: What in this image appears ready to release, carry or continue something?

Relation: How does reproduction depend on height, timing, air movement, disturbance or exposure here?

Unresolved: What will leave this site, and where might it travel next?

The Thallus

Descriptor: Growth without hierarchy or centre.

Tags: surface, adaptation, simplicity

Notice: Where does the image show growth spreading without a clear centre or direction?

Relation: How does this flat or simple form adapt to the surface that supports it?

Unresolved: What kinds of organisation are present without appearing hierarchical?

The Algae

Descriptor: Collective life operating before individuality.

Tags: origin, cooperation, substrate

Notice: Where does the image suggest a living layer rather than separate organisms?

Relation: How does this layer bind substrate, moisture, residue and atmosphere together?

Unresolved: What forms of life are too small or too mixed to distinguish clearly?

Conditions

Damp

Descriptor: Moisture sufficient for emergence.

Tags: moisture, support, activation

Notice: Where is moisture visibly or indirectly shaping the scene?

Relation: How does dampness connect weather, material, shade, drainage and living growth?

Unresolved: What source of moisture is uncertain or hidden from view?

Shade

Descriptor: Protection from exposure and excess.

Tags: shelter, persistence, concealment

Notice: What has been protected, concealed or made possible by shade?

Relation: How does reduced exposure alter the relationship between surface, organism and built form?

Unresolved: What remains unseen because this place is sheltered or overlooked?

Condensation

Descriptor: Matter gathering from dispersed conditions.

Tags: coalescence, atmosphere, formation

Notice: Where does the image suggest atmosphere becoming material?

Relation: How do temperature, surface, air movement and enclosure gather into visible moisture or trace?

Unresolved: What invisible conditions had to come together for this mark to form?

Overflow

Descriptor: Excess escaping containment.

Tags: abundance, disruption, redistribution

Notice: Where does the image show something exceeding its intended boundary?

Relation: How does excess redistribute water, matter, attention or growth across the site?

Unresolved: What system was unable to contain what passed through it?

Residue

Descriptor: Material traces left behind.

Tags: memory, trace, persistence

Notice: What trace, stain or leftover material becomes important in this image?

Relation: How does residue connect past activity with present growth or perception?

Unresolved: What event or process left this trace behind?

Crack

Descriptor: Structural weakness becoming opportunity.

Tags: access, vulnerability, emergence

Notice: Where has a break, seam or weakness become visible?

Relation: How does this opening allow water, seed, spore, dirt or attention to enter?

Unresolved: Is this crack a sign of failure, possibility, neglect or repair?

Leak

Descriptor: Escape from intended containment.

Tags: escape, seepage, change

Notice: What looks as though it has escaped from a hidden or managed system?

Relation: How does leakage connect infrastructure to unexpected ecological effects?

Unresolved: What hidden pipe, roof, joint or surface might be producing this condition?

Seep

Descriptor: Slow movement through hidden pathways.

Tags: infiltration, persistence, dampness

Notice: Where does movement appear slow, partial or absorbed into the material?

Relation: How does slow passage through a surface change what can live there?

Unresolved: What path is the water or material taking beneath what can be seen?

Rust

Descriptor: Transformation through time and exposure.

Tags: decay, chemistry, weathering

Notice: Where does metal reveal time, exposure or chemical change?

Relation: How does corrosion link weather, industry, maintenance and material vulnerability?

Unresolved: Is this transformation damage, record, adaptation or warning?

Water and movement

Flow

Descriptor: Continuous movement through a system.

Tags: movement, circulation, process

Notice: Where can you see or infer movement through the image?

Relation: How does flow connect this site to wider systems of water, use, waste or care?

Unresolved: What part of the flow is missing from the frame?

Current

Descriptor: Directional force carrying material or energy.

Tags: momentum, transmission, route

Notice: What direction or force seems to be carrying matter through this place?

Relation: How does the current shape deposits, growth, erosion or attention along its route?

Unresolved: Where does this force begin, and who or what is moved by it?

Drift

Descriptor: Movement shaped by external forces.

Tags: uncertainty, passage, adaptation

Notice: What appears to have arrived here through chance, weather or displacement?

Relation: How do wind, water, gravity, traffic or human movement influence what gathers here?

Unresolved: What histories of movement are carried by these displaced materials or organisms?

Confluence

Descriptor: Multiple pathways joining together.

Tags: convergence, meeting, synthesis

Notice: Where do different paths, surfaces or materials meet in this image?

Relation: How does this meeting point change the conditions for growth, residue or flow?

Unresolved: What separate systems are combining here without being fully recognised?

Reservoir

Descriptor: Stored capacity awaiting release.

Tags: storage, potential, accumulation

Notice: Where is something being held, stored or delayed?

Relation: How does stored water, energy, matter or attention prepare the site for later change?

Unresolved: What might be released if this stored condition shifts?

Source

Descriptor: Point of origin for a larger system.

Tags: beginning, supply, emergence

Notice: What possible origin point does the image suggest?

Relation: How does this source feed or activate other relations beyond the visible scene?

Unresolved: Can the beginning of this condition be located, or is it already distributed?

Drain

Descriptor: Removal and redirection of excess.

Tags: release, channel, regulation

Notice: Where is excess being collected, removed or redirected?

Relation: How does the drain organise water, waste, growth and maintenance around itself?

Unresolved: What disappears through this system, and what remains at its edge?

Pool

Descriptor: Temporary accumulation within a landscape.

Tags: reflection, storage, stillness

Notice: Where has water, matter or attention gathered temporarily?

Relation: How does stillness create a different relation between surface, reflection, residue and life?

Unresolved: What will change when this temporary accumulation dries, moves or is disturbed?

Flood

Descriptor: A system exceeding its designed limits.

Tags: excess, transformation, disruption

Notice: Where does the image suggest a system under pressure or beyond capacity?

Relation: How does excess water or matter transform boundaries, routes and habits of use?

Unresolved: What designed limit has been crossed, and who or what is affected?

Infrastructure

Pipe

Descriptor: Controlled movement through infrastructure.

Tags: transport, containment, direction

Notice: Where does the image show movement being contained or directed?

Relation: How does the pipe connect hidden systems to visible surfaces and living growth?

Unresolved: What travels inside this infrastructure that the image cannot show?

Cable

Descriptor: Connection across distance.

Tags: transmission, linkage, power

Notice: Where does connection appear as a line, route or attachment?

Relation: How does the cable bind this local surface to wider systems of energy, signal or dependency?

Unresolved: What distant places, bodies or decisions are implicated by this connection?

Vent

Descriptor: Exchange between internal and external environments.

Tags: circulation, atmosphere, release

Notice: Where is air, heat, moisture or smell moving between inside and outside?

Relation: How does ventilation create a microclimate for dust, dampness, growth or decay?

Unresolved: What interior process is made indirectly visible at this opening?

Transformer

Descriptor: Conversion between different states of energy.

Tags: transformation, power, mediation

Notice: Where does the image suggest energy being converted, stepped down or mediated?

Relation: How does this infrastructure translate distant power into local urban conditions?

Unresolved: What costs, risks or dependencies are hidden inside this conversion?

Valve

Descriptor: Regulation of flow.

Tags: control, threshold, governance

Notice: Where is flow being controlled, restricted or made adjustable?

Relation: How does regulation shape what can pass, accumulate, leak or thrive nearby?

Unresolved: Who or what has the power to open, close or alter this relation?

Conduit

Descriptor: Dedicated channel for movement.

Tags: routing, distribution, passage

Notice: Where has a route been designed for passage through the city?

Relation: How does this channel organise the movement of water, energy, signal or maintenance work?

Unresolved: What follows the conduit without being part of its official purpose?

Relay

Descriptor: Passing signals between locations.

Tags: communication, network, exchange

Notice: Where does the image imply a message, signal or handoff?

Relation: How does this point of relay connect observation, infrastructure and response across distance?

Unresolved: What might be lost, delayed or transformed as the signal passes on?

Grid

Descriptor: Coordinated infrastructure across a territory.

Tags: system, organisation, dependency

Notice: Where does the local scene reveal part of a larger organised system?

Relation: How does the grid make this place dependent on distant flows, standards or maintenance?

Unresolved: Which parts of the system remain invisible because they are too ordinary?

Battery

Descriptor: Stored energy available for future use.

Tags: reserve, storage, capacity

Notice: Where is potential being stored rather than immediately used?

Relation: How does stored capacity change the timing of action, maintenance, growth or response?

Unresolved: What form of energy or effort has been accumulated here, and for whom?

Substation

Descriptor: Hidden node enabling larger systems.

Tags: infrastructure, mediation, power

Notice: Where does a quiet or fenced-off node hint at larger operations?

Relation: How does this hidden support structure shape the visible life and use of the surrounding area?

Unresolved: What dependencies are concentrated here but kept out of everyday awareness?

Computation

The Algorithm

Descriptor: Pattern emerging through repetition.

Tags: logic, recursion, pattern

Notice: What repeated pattern or rule seems to organise this image?

Relation: How do repeated actions, materials or maintenance routines produce ecological effects?

Unresolved: What rule is operating here without being explicitly stated?

The Circuit

Descriptor: A pathway completed through return.

Tags: loop, energy, completion

Notice: Where does the image suggest a loop, return or feedback process?

Relation: How does energy, water, attention or matter circulate back through the site?

Unresolved: What would interrupt the circuit, and what would change if it failed?

The Code

Descriptor: Computation unfolding through inscription.

Tags: memory, process, language

Notice: What marks, sequences or traces read like an inscription across the surface?

Relation: How does the site appear to record processes step by step through stain, wear or growth?

Unresolved: What cannot yet be decoded from the sequence of marks?

The Black Box

Descriptor: A process whose workings remain hidden.

Tags: mystery, opacity, computation

Notice: What visible effect points towards an unseen process?

Relation: How does not knowing the mechanism change your relation to the site?

Unresolved: What would need to be opened, traced or tested to understand what is happening?

The Cache

Descriptor: Information stored close to use.

Tags: memory, latency, reserve

Notice: Where does the image show stored traces close to where they might be used again?

Relation: How do local deposits, memories or residues speed up future growth or recognition?

Unresolved: What has been stored here without being formally archived?

The Interface

Descriptor: A surface where systems meet.

Tags: translation, exchange, boundary

Notice: Where does the surface act as a meeting point between different systems?

Relation: How does this interface translate between organism, material, human use and infrastructure?

Unresolved: What forms of exchange are enabled or blocked at this boundary?

The Buffer

Descriptor: Space protecting against disruption.

Tags: delay, protection, moderation

Notice: Where does the image show a layer, gap or delay that softens impact?

Relation: How does buffering protect growth, infrastructure or human use from sudden change?

Unresolved: What pressure is being held back, slowed down or absorbed?

The Archive

Descriptor: Long-term storage of accumulated memory.

Tags: preservation, record, history

Notice: What accumulated record does this place seem to hold?

Relation: How do material marks, growth, repair and decay store the history of the site?

Unresolved: What histories are preserved here, and which have been erased?

The Observer

Descriptor: Attention altering what is observed. A perspective embedded within a network.

Tags: perception, participation, awareness, monitoring, relation, position

Notice: What changed because you stopped to look at this site? From what position does this image make the site knowable?

Relation: How does your act of photographing or naming become part of the relation being studied? What is excluded by this position within the network?

Unresolved: What might remain different if another observer, body or lens approached this place? How does this viewpoint connect your body, the device, the image and the urban system?

Materials and surfaces

Concrete

Descriptor: Manufactured ground supporting unexpected life.

Tags: substrate, urbanity, endurance

Notice: What unexpected life or trace appears on this manufactured ground?

Relation: How does concrete act as both urban infrastructure and ecological substrate?

Unresolved: What does this surface permit, resist or slowly transform?

Brick

Descriptor: Modular structure built through repetition.

Tags: assembly, accumulation, history

Notice: Where do repeated units, joints or mortar lines organise the image?

Relation: How do brick, gap, age and moisture create niches for life or residue?

Unresolved: What histories of labour, weather and repair are stored in this wall?

Metal

Descriptor: Material shaped through extraction and energy.

Tags: conductivity, corrosion, industry

Notice: Where does metal bring industry, conductivity or exposure into the scene?

Relation: How does this material connect extraction, manufacture, use, weathering and ecological contact?

Unresolved: What environmental costs or transformations are hidden behind this surface?

Wood

Descriptor: Living matter transformed into infrastructure.

Tags: growth, adaptation, decay

Notice: Where does once-living material remain active through grain, rot, damp or repair?

Relation: How does wood blur the boundary between biological growth and built structure?

Unresolved: Is this material still participating in ecological cycles, even as infrastructure?

Dust

Descriptor: Accumulation of fragmented material.

Tags: residue, atmosphere, time

Notice: What fine accumulation reveals time, air movement or neglect?

Relation: How does dust connect bodies, traffic, weather, interiors and surfaces?

Unresolved: What mixture of sources is present in this material but impossible to separate?

Limescale

Descriptor: Mineral memory deposited by water.

Tags: accumulation, water, trace

Notice: Where has water left a mineral record on the surface?

Relation: How does limescale connect plumbing, hardness, evaporation, repetition and time?

Unresolved: What repeated flow or maintenance pattern has produced this deposit?

Mould

Descriptor: Growth emerging from neglect and moisture.

Tags: adaptation, dampness, colonisation

Notice: Where does growth point to excess moisture, enclosure or lack of ventilation?

Relation: How does mould connect care, neglect, building fabric and bodily health?

Unresolved: What social or infrastructural condition is being biologically expressed here?

Weathering

Descriptor: Continuous alteration through environment.

Tags: exposure, transformation, duration

Notice: What signs show that this material is being slowly changed by its environment?

Relation: How do weather, time, use and maintenance co-author the surface?

Unresolved: When does weathering become damage, evidence, beauty or ecological opportunity?

Thresholds and governance

Threshold

Descriptor: A point of transition between states.

Tags: boundary, passage, decision

Notice: Where does the image show a crossing point between one condition and another?

Relation: How does this threshold organise movement between inside and outside, wet and dry, public and hidden?

Unresolved: Who or what is allowed to cross this boundary, and under what conditions?

Filter

Descriptor: Selective passage through a system.

Tags: selection, purification, control

Notice: Where is something being sorted, screened, caught or allowed through?

Relation: How does filtration shape what becomes clean, dirty, visible, blocked or alive?

Unresolved: What is being excluded or accumulated by this selective passage?

Switch

Descriptor: Sudden alteration of a pathway.

Tags: choice, activation, redirection

Notice: Where does the site suggest an on/off condition, choice or redirection?

Relation: How would a small change in activation alter flows, behaviours or ecological conditions here?

Unresolved: What decision has already been made into the design of this place?

Access Portal

Descriptor: The ability to enter, use, or participate.

Tags: inclusion, permission, movement

Notice: Where does the image show entry, permission, blockage or invitation?

Relation: How does access shape which bodies, organisms, maintenance practices or publics can use this site?

Unresolved: What forms of participation are made possible here, and what remains excluded?

Enclosure

Descriptor: Restriction imposed upon circulation.

Tags: ownership, limitation, boundary

Notice: Where is movement contained, fenced, boxed in or made private?

Relation: How does enclosure affect water, growth, maintenance, ownership and attention?

Unresolved: What is being protected, controlled or hidden by this boundary?

Maintenance

Descriptor: Repeated care sustaining operation.

Tags: repair, upkeep, continuity

Notice: Where can you see evidence of repair, cleaning, cutting, replacement or care?

Relation: How does maintenance shape which forms of life are supported, removed or tolerated?

Unresolved: What labour is required to keep this place functioning, and whose labour is invisible?