Gentle Disco
Last year, artist Arne Hendriks started building pigeon towers with mycelium blocks at Mediamatic. He has been researching several techniques of building with the living material. One thing he discovered is that the blocks need to be pressed. Since March we have been experimenting with the method of dancing on top of the blocks in order to press them. It turns out that this is one of the most effective ways to prep the material, and besides that, it is just a lot of fun to dance on the warm and soft mycelium!
During Dutch Design Week, Arne is building pigeon towers at Strijp-S in Eindhoven and, of course, he needs us to dance there too. Get ready to show your moves on the mycelium dance floor at Ketelhuisplein!
Pigeon Towers
Arne builds pigeon towers with mycelium. These structures are an ongoing experiment to build with living mycelium waste from oyster mushroom farms. The project investigates questions such as: Can we build structures to house feral pigeons? What is the best design to build a tower with mycelium? And how long does it take for the bricks to grow together? Through experimenting with different shapes, and building structures, we see how the material responds, and if we can build a comfy living space for pigeons (or other animals?)
Arne Hendriks
Arne is an artist and researcher on human ecology. He explores the borders of specific cultural values that define our relationship with the planet. His projects include The Incredible Shrinking Man that researches if it is possible to downsize the human species to better fit the earth and Fatberg, the building of an island of fat. As a regular Mediamatic collaborator, he directed several projects to draw attention to our (sometimes twisted) relation with the planet and its resources, like Kool Abundance, The Starvation Experiment, and the building of a holy pigeon tower out of recycled newspapers.
Information
Inhuman Carnaval at Dutch Design Week
Open Air Gentle Disco
17th October 2021, 14:00-15:30
Hari Hachi Bu village, Ketelhuisplein, Eindhoven
Free entrance