Reactive Fungi Bodysuit & Mycelium Motherboard - Maaijke Middelbeek - Visual Artist

Part of THROUGH OOZE and SLIME

Solo Exhibition at Galerija Na Katu, Zagreb, HR

Maaijke Middelbeek, Through ooze and slime, On the Road Again, Reactive Fungi Wearable, Maaijke Middelbeek, Fungi art, Becoming with, SF, Symbiocene

Installation with:

Reactive Fungi Bodysuit & Mycelium Motherboard, 2023

<< REACTIVE FUNGI BODYSUIT >>

for parallel sensing with fungi

Reactive Fungi Bodysuit

connected to Pleurotus Eryngii

King Trumpet mushroom

Maaijke Middelbeek, Through ooze and slime, Reactive Fungi Wearable

Slip on and plug in. The Reactive Fungi Bodysuit is a human-fungus-machine interface, a bodysuit with a sensory membrane colonized with mycelium of filamentous fungi and equipped with embedded intelligent electronic patches for signal processing.

The Reactive Fungi Wearable is a user-responsive symbiotic system, able to sense and process information from a hosting body linked with the wearable ecological unit, connecting neural and fungal networks. Changing patterns of electrical activity and properties allow to interface mycelium with conventional electronics.

Full research paper below

MYCELIUM MOTHERBOARD

plug in

sense the fungi while they sense you

Maaijke Middelbeek, Mycelium Motherboard, Reactive Fungi Wearable, Through ooze and slime

at the opening, 10 days after starting the culture

humus, soil, white button mushroom & mycelium culture, oyster mushrooms

wood, plastic, cables and tubes, LED light

Mycelium Motherboard

Mushrooms were growing during the exhibition from Jan. 18th - 31st

photo taken on Jan. 29th

Fungal hyphae knitting through

a fresh layer of humus

Fungi can send electrical impulses underground through

long, thread-like structures called hyphae, which

expand to form a network of mycelium

Maaijke Middelbeek, Through ooze and slime

Mycelium Motherboard

detail with Pleurotus ostreatus (blue oyster mushroom)

cables, tubes, Agaricus bisporus culture (white button mushroom), soil, humus

WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A MUSHROOM?

REACTIVE FUNGI WEARABLE & MYCELIUM MOTHERBOARD

RESEARCH PAPER

Reactive Fungi Bodysuit Research.pdf

Adobe Acrobat Document 508.3 KB

Mycelium Motherboard

fungal hyphae knitting through a layer of humus

close up

Below: Artist Maaijke Middelbeek wearing and testing the prototype of the Reactive Fungi Bodysuit.

Left: for the research paper see PDF

King trumpet mushrooms were growing during the exhibition

from January 18th - 31st

Photo taken Jan. 30th when they were already air drying

because I wanted to preserve them for Künstlerhaus

Transformation

during the exhibition

Almost two weeks earlier.. on the day of the exhibition opening on Jan. 18th

plugging in with:

Pleurotus eryngii, cables, breadboard, bricks