Part of THROUGH OOZE and SLIME
Solo Exhibition at Galerija Na Katu, Zagreb, HR
Installation with:
Reactive Fungi Bodysuit & Mycelium Motherboard, 2023
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REACTIVE FUNGI BODYSUIT
Slip on and plug in!
for parallel sensing with fungi
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.
Find the full report with first findings on "What it is like to be a mushroom?" - as far as we could analyse the tickling sensations - further below on this page.
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A human-fungus-machine interface...
to become closer to fungi
Real close
The Reactive Fungi Bodysuit was
connected to Pleurotus Eryngii
here in a sensory membrane
Sensory membrane, electronic patches,
cables, mycelium filaments and mycelium heart
- -- MYCELIUM MOTHERBOARD - --
plug in
sense the fungi while they sense you
Mycelium knitting in the soil, at the opening, 10 days after starting the culture
humus, soil, white button mushroom culture, oyster mushrooms
wood, plastic, cables and tubes, LED light
Mycelium Motherboard, detail
The mycelium was colonizing the soil and mushrooms were growing
during the exhibition from Jan. 18th - 31st
photo taken on Jan. 29th
Mycelium Motherboard
detail at the exhibition opening with Pleurotus ostreatus (blue oyster mushroom)
cables, tubes, Agaricus bisporus culture (white button mushroom), soil, humus
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
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WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A MUSHROOM?
REACTIVE FUNGI WEARABLE & MYCELIUM MOTHERBOARD
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 report with the findings of "What it is like to be a mushroom" see PDF
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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
The mushroom at the end of the exhibition...
During the exhibition in Zagreb mushrooms were growing from the Mycelium Motherboard, even though the circumstances were not that mushroom friendly in January with a dry heated exhibition space and closed windows. So these white buttons appeared with a bit of a delay, but that's how it goes working with other organisms that have their own needs and pace and do not always stick to my timetable.
I had planned to prepare a mushroom soup with algae for everyone involved with the exhibition set-up in Zagreb, as a n interspecies exhibition closing ritual. Instead I transported some of the cultures back to Vienna where I could eat and share mushrooms for over 2 weeks. The others I donated to the Mushroom Museum in Zagreb where they freeze dried one of the cultures, that is now part of their mushroom collection and exhibition.
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SPORE ME ! .....
SPORE ME!
willing to receive spores*
photo & illustration
2021
The space we live in is one of friction, of hybridity and entanglements. Anthropologist Anna Tsing writes "Everyone carries a history of contamination, purity is not an option."
*Spore: A small, usually single-celled reproductive body that is resistant to adverse environmental conditions and is capable of growing into a new organism, produced especially by certain fungi, algae, protozoans and nonseedbearing plants such as mosses and ferns.
An earlier interpretation of becoming with ------
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