can the idea of tropism be less scientific?

can i take the ideas of tropism, alchemy and fertility; combine them into something less scientific and direct as i initially thought and take a less literal sense when i want to create? such as joshua davis and commonwealth did to produce these vases based on tropism, but how closely is tropism related to their pieces? website: http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/tropism_where_graphics_meets_product_design_and_digital_manufacturing_6475.asp
other website: http://mocoloco.com/archives/004253.php

where these are really stylized vases that play on the idea of tropism without actually using the plants but designing around the whole idea that light plays effect on the pod/seed growth, how connected am i to having the actual plant growing through different forms that i create (i was thinking more structural, but now possibly more podlike and flowing with delicate mazes and forms on the insides of vessels), would a larger scale vessel/teapot/etc. be the way for me? sculptures even? i've wanted to play with materials outside of metal for a while bc i miss making sculptures since metal takes all my time away from this, but i was definetly interested in playing with the alchemy thread by where a plant does not survive, but dies and leaves its remains, turning this point into gold/precious material to signify the remembrance of the plant and marking its life as precious