Andy Cartier

Hybrid Material

Mycelium Experiments

Explore the potential of living material through a series of diverse experiments.

Create the puzzle-shaped mycelium brick -

Nehis Osagie, Dominik Einfalt

Many designers and artists are interested in the research and applications of mycelium. The versatility of the material brings a lot of possibilities in a large variety of fields. From building systems to sustainable packaging, there is still a lot to discover about living materials. In the Cleanlab of Mediamatic, we are researching and exploring these possibilities.

For the first experiment, we were interested in combining mycelium with plaster in order to create a hybrid material. Since plaster is easy to use, fast to dry and often used to cast a shape. We tried to merge it with mycelium to see the result. Both materials have properties we tried to take advantage of. We started with a broken plaster brick we 'fixed' by growing mycelium on it. The result was a bi-material brick ("Hybricks").