Process and Practice

Research:

Fungi in Folklore

TopLab

Futurium Museum

Trying and Failing to Grow My Own Mushrooms


Evaluative Statement

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Fungi and Mushrooms in Folklore

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 I'm interested at looking into the use of fungi and mushroom imagery throughout folklore and fairytales. I want to see if there's any room for crossover with the more scientific based research I've done. Mushrooms make a lot of appearances in fairytale imagery and historically they've had lots of different meanings and significance to different cultures, exploring these ideas could lend me some new inspirations for my own work. I think a good example of these potential for this crossover of science and folklore comes from Fairy Circles; the name given to a perfect circle of mushrooms that grows commonly in forests during the summertime. In British folklore these circles were the spots where fairies would dance after a rainstorm, and people were warned not to enter them as humans would fall into a hundred year sleep if they did.  Scientifically speaking, we now know that these circles form due to the pattern of growth of the mycelium below the surface. The fairy circle ...
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Futurium Museum

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 During a trip to Berlin last summer, I visited the Futurium Museum, and one exhibition called The Outside Inside by Johanna Schmeer particularly held my attention. This exhibition looks at the idea of biology and technology becoming increasingly intertwined, and the potential issues and possibilities of blurring these lines even further.  The main part of the installation is a futuristic garden wherein plants and fungi are encased in terrariums. The specific plantlife and fungi in the terrariums were chosen for their different terraforming abilities. Some of the domes contain Amaranth, " which can grow and sequester carbon dioxide in saline and dry conditions, removing a small amount of salt from the ground in the process" others contain oyster mushrooms " which have the ability to remove heavy metals and other contaminants from their environment, preparing it for other species." (quotes taken from the  Futurium website ) The part of the installation that I found m...
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Evaluative statement

  Rebecca East Process and Practice  Evaluative Statement Throughout this project looking at the theme of ‘Poetic Science’ I wanted to explore the intricacies of mushrooms and mycelium, finding ways to illustrate the complex ecology of these species, while also looking into more fictional mediums like fantasy and fairytales, where fungi imagery is often used. In my initial research I started reading ‘Entangled Life’ by Merlin Sheldrake, which expanded my knowledge of not just how many species of fungi there are but also in how they shape the world around us in many different ways; this made me realise that I would need to narrow my focus away from fungi as a whole, as the topic is far too expansive to cover in a single project. I took inspiration from some places I visited on a trip to Berlin last year, where scientists and artists have looked at specific use cases for certain fungal species and decided that focusing on individual species and looking at them in more det...
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