About a year ago Mediamatic, Utrecht University and Officina Corpuscoli announced an open call inviting artists and designers to start working with mycelium. Since then five projects were selected and started developing their research proposals. During the Bio-me festival, 18 - 20 September 2014, the first results were presented in the Aquaponics Office.
Fungi are organisms that have an enormous cultural potential that we are only just starting to discover. For Mediamatic fungi are being explored as a source of new biodegradable materials that can replace many synthetics during the 21st century.
In order to discover and develop the many possibilities mycelium has to offer, we have to learn about its qualities. Utrecht University helps answering the following questions: can mycelium be transparent? Does it absorb water or is it repellent? How variable is its flexibility? Can you color mycelium? Can you fixate its fluffy texture?
Growing new materials takes time and finding the right strategies for a design asks for trial and error. The results shown at Bio-me are samples and first explorations of the research proposals to give an insight into the process of the project.
Works by: Marieke Broertjes, Rosalie Bak, Maurizio Montalti, Caroline de Roy, Mandy den Elzen, Aniela Hoitink, Kristel Peters
