Navigating Forms of Fungal Consciousness

2022-2023

Project by Lauren Nasrallah,
assisted by Sam Rowbotham & Kit Ondaatje Rolls

Lauren Nasrallah: code, chair build and creation
Sam Rowbotham: prototype chair design, chair build and creation
Kit Ondaatje Rolls: chair build and creation

Interactive mycelium chair grown on woodchips and waste
project in process

PART 1 - GROW, MOULD, GROW

GROW

Growing over 50 bags of mycelium on various substrates: woodchips, straw, cardboard, and spent grains.

Grey Oyster Mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus (test #1)

L: mycelium knots about to fruit into mushrooms. R: king oyster mushrooms fruiting on spent grain

oyster mycelium growing on woodchips

grow many (many many many many) bags of mycelium

MOULD

mix bags with gum arabic and brown rice flour then fill chair mould

...wait for the mycelium to grow...

GROW II

growth at 1 week

growth at 3 weeks

two quarters of the mushroom chair with oyster mushrooms. they will fit together along their straight lengths.

fluffy ‘mycelium knots’ that form just before the mushroom appears

PART 2

Reishi Mushrooms, Ganoderma lingzhi

Base of the chair – two moulds. When we place them together, the mycelium will fuse to form one base mould

Slightly contaminated because we mixed two different strains of reishi to test if they would fuse.
Other quarters had zero mould!