Phenotypic plasticity refers to how organisms change their behavior, morphology, and physiology in response to changes in the environment. One of the most well-known cases is grasshoppers and locusts. When grasshoppers get physically brushed on their legs enough, which usually indicates high density of grasshoppers and not enough food, they produce serotonin that will turn them into the more peaceful solidary grasshoppers into a horde of locusts.
With the transformation, locusts’ changes to a warning color of yellow and black, their appetite increases, become more aggressive and reproduce more. They also produce pheromone that attracts each other, causing them to come together to form massive hordes. They also become more capable of flying and traveling in a distance. The locusts used to plagued the US in its early era, they grew to numbers well into the trillions and were known to eat almost all plant matter, even tree barks, sheep’s’ wool and in cases, even the clothes people are wearing. At its height, it was so devastating that an 1877 Nebraska law said that anyone between the ages of 16 and 60 had to work at least two days eliminating locusts at hatching time or face a $10 fine.
Due to the destruction of their habitat, modern use of pesticide and irrigation, such event haven’t occurred recently and are slowly fading away from people’s memory. But phenotypic plasticity is still an extremely fascinating topic, which doesn’t limit to grasshoppers. It is present in almost every organism, from single cell organisms to humans.
I aim to represent this phenomenon by projecting colored lights on a strategically colored print of multiple grasshoppers, which makes specific image visible under corresponding light. The three fundamental lights: red, green and blue symbolize the stages of its transformation. Green symbolizes the initial stage of a grasshopper, red symbolizes its locust counterpart, while blue symbolizes the sky, as horde of locusts take off in a group in their grand finale.
