Damaged Leaf Herbarium: An Initial Curated Selection of Insect-Damaged, Regenerated, and Computationally Remediated Leaves

This is an initial curated release of approximately 1,600 tree leaves selected from the Damaged Leaf Herbarium, a collection of 10,000+ damaged leaves collected by the author in Colchester, Vermont, USA during Lymantria dispar outbreak years 2021 and 2022. The leaves were photographed by the University of Vermont Plant Machine Design Group. Also included is a sample of second generation regrowth — second flush leaves from a Quercus rubra that were initially defoliated in the early spring of the outbreak years.

Also included is a sample of damaged leaves remediated through a speculative computational design project that imagines sympoietic plant-machine relationships using a customized version of CycleGAN, one that reaveals the visual output of each layer of the neural network.

A full dataset release is planned in conjunction with forthcoming publications and art exhibitions. The larger project explores interspecies entanglements in relation to these insect outbreaks and the historic introduction of Lymantria dispar to North America, and its connection to late 19th century ambitions to establish a silk industry in the United States. Researchers wishing to be notified of the full release may contact the author at [e-mail].