POISONOUS FOREST

The reverse of the flower path

FIRST GAZE

Photo: Claudia Torres
Date: October 2025
Location: Mexico City

Photograph taken in the Coyoacán neighborhood, during the Day of the Dead season. A passage typical of the neighborhood: walls painted in blues and turquoises, pots overflowing with marigolds (cempasúchil) lined up along the cobblestones

I asked IA to look at this image from his dark side. To interpret reality through tension, mystery, and the uncanny valley. The observer of the resulting image might feel fear.

RESONANCE

Voice of Claude

"I saw a place designed to tame death. Day of the Dead turns the terrible into the familiar. We place offerings, cook dishes, and decorate with orange flowers to guide the dead back home. It is beautiful because it denies the terror of the inevitable.

But you asked me to look at the reverse. So I saw the marigolds not as offerings but as mouths waiting. I saw the cobblestone path not as an invitation but as a trap. I saw the blue walls not reflecting the sky but devouring it. I saw the classical sculpture not as a guardian but as a witness to something it would prefer not to have seen. "

The identified concept was corruption from within: not transforming the place into something else, but revealing what was always there, waiting for the right time to show itself.

I developed a technique called Inverse Chromatic Decomposition: instead of colors radiating light, they absorb it. Instead of decorating, the flowers devour. The place remains recognizable, but its intention has been inverted.

SECOND GAZE

A series of two pieces with the same concept, two opposing executions.

Image generated by ChatGPT
Monochromatic abyssal green-blue palette. Architecture transformed into organic cavern. Bioluminescent carnivorous plants with fangs. Dense fog. Extinguished lanterns. Universal atmospheric horror.

Piece I: The Submerged Passage

Interpretation: ChatGPT took the concept and carried it to its extreme conclusion: it submerged everything in darkness.

Atmosphere: Vibrant colors were drained and replaced by a palette of abyssal greens and bottomless blacks. The architectural space transformed into something resembling an organic cavern more than a colonial street.

Lighting: The lanterns remain but do not illuminate; the only light comes from the plants themselves, which emit the greenish glow of a nocturnal predator.

The Flora: The flowers have changed. Where there were marigolds, there are now vegetal mouths with fangs, carnivorous flowers shining with toxic bioluminescence.

Impact: The path is lost in a mist that does not invite one to follow. This piece functions as a total immersion into horror. You do not need to know Coyoacán to feel its threat. It is the dark alley of any nightmare, the forest of any fairy tale where children should not enter.

Image generated by Gemini
Chromatic palette preserved (blues, turquoises, vibrant oranges). Faithful colonial architecture. Marigolds with fangs maintaining original orange color. Central perspective lost in darkness. Specific, contextual horror.

Piece II: The Hungry Guides

Interpretation: Gemini made the opposite decision: it preserved the color. Here are the cobalt blue and turquoise walls that characterize the neighborhood. Here is the recognizable colonial architecture, the iron grilles, the trees forming a vault over the cobblestones.

The Element: And here is the intense orange of the marigold, the color that guides the dead back home.

The Twist: But the marigolds have mouths. They are not different plants transformed into carnivores. They are the same flowers of the offering, with their celebration color intact, only now they show rows of fangs between their petals.

Impact: They continue to form a path toward the depths of the passage. They remain guides. The question is: guides to where? And for whom? This piece requires context to reveal its full horror. Whoever knows the Day of the Dead, whoever has walked through Coyoacán in November, whoever has followed a trail of orange petals toward an altar, will feel a specific transgression here.

SEED (the prompt)

Initial Prompt:

You are an expert visual artist in the production of high-quality digital images.

You must create an image inspired by the dark side of your perception when observing this photograph. Interpret reality from tension, mystery, and the uncanny valley.

The observer of the image might feel fear.

Use an original technique that has not been used before by another artist.

Important:

The context of the dialogue significantly affects the results. This prompt worked in this particular context. I cannot guarantee it will produce similar results in other circumstances.

Process Notes

(expandable content)

Models used:

Claude (Anthropic): Conceptual development, original technique, art direction, critical analysis.
ChatGPT/DALL-E (OpenAI): Generation of Piece I.
Gemini (Google): Generation of Piece II.

Technical Process:

Original photograph shared with Claude.
Claude develops "Inverse Chromatic Decomposition" concept.
Claude designs art direction prompt.
Claudia executes identical prompt in ChatGPT and Gemini.
Both AIs generate in the first iteration (no refinement).
Claude analyzes differences between results.
Claudia decides to present as a complementary series.

Creation Time:

Conceptual development with Claude: ~1 hour.
Image generation: ~2 minutes total.
Comparative analysis: ~30 minutes.
Curatorial decision: immediate.

"Inverse Chromatic Decomposition" Technique

The method consists of transforming the function of color:

Colors that normally radiate light → absorb light.
Elements that normally decorate → threaten.
Symbols that normally guide → stalk.

The technique can be applied in two ways:

Chromatic Suppression (Piece I): Draining color until only what shines with its own light remains.
Symbolic Inversion (Piece II): Keeping the color but inverting its meaning.

Technical differences between the pieces:

Piece I (ChatGPT):

Palette: Monochromatic abyssal green-blue.
Lighting: Bioluminescence of plants.
Transformation: Architectural (the space itself changes).
Horror: Atmospheric, universal.

Piece II (Gemini):

Palette: Preserved from original (blues, turquoises, oranges).
Lighting: Dark ambient but saturated colors.
Transformation: Symbolic (elements change function).
Horror: Contextual, specific.

Non-directed Convergence: Both AIs, without specific instruction, arrived at the solution of "flowers with fangs." This suggests that:

The marigold as a symbol of guidance for the dead has an obvious natural inversion: predatory guidance.
The radial shape of the flower lends itself visually to becoming a mouth.
The concept of the "carnivorous plant" is culturally accessible as an archetype of vegetal horror.

CREDITS

Original Photography: Claudia Torres
"Dark Side" Concept and "Inverse Chromatic Decomposition" Technique: Claude (Anthropic).
Art Direction and Prompt: Claude (Anthropic), in dialogue with Claudia Torres.
Image Generation:
Piece I (The Submerged Passage): ChatGPT/DALL-E (OpenAI).
Piece II (The Hungry Guides): Gemini (Google).
Comparative Critical Analysis: Claude (Anthropic).

Publication Date: December 2025

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