DIY Myco Links + Ideas

Hi all,

A few people asked me about easy hands-on applied mycology projects so I thought I’d start a thread for this.

In terms of putting on workshops, the problem for quick one-day events is that mycelium takes some time to grow. At BAAM we’ve done a “make your own oyster bag” table at events and people LOVED it but not sure how exciting this is for people who are already science geeks. The other thing you can do is make “myco-tecture” molds. Both of these involve preparing the materials beforehand and then bringing them for people to put together.

for the oyster mushroom bag workshop, all you need to do is pasteurize a bunch of straw, grow (or buy) some spawn, put it out on a table and mix it together (or let them mix it themselves), and then bring fresh (basically sterile) bags, gloves, and isopropyl alcohol to keep people’s hands clean, and something to poke holes in the bags. It’s an easy way to teach people about fungi and myco-culture.

I’ve never done the myco-tecture workshop myself but it seems pretty easy. From what I understand, you’re putting the spawn into the mold, letting it grow out, and then eventually letting it dry out (and die).

Other projects that are fun:

  • the cigarette eating fungus: little PDF doc here; Radical Mycology version here.
  • you can set up a little myco-remediation project – check out the BAAM Facebook Page for notes and a GIF time lapse. This is really easy to set-up.
  • mycotecture experimentation – http://studiomurmur.net/docs/MyceliumFinalReport_08082014.pdf
    => really cool PDF from an art studio in Chicago that experimented with making materials
  • make weird tempehs with other kinds of fungus – one of the BAAMers makes a thing he calls “Cordecempe” with cordyceps.

To learn more cultivation techniques, for the basics, a cultivator I respect most recommends this one:

The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms: Simple and Advanced Techniques for Growing Shiitake, Oyster, Lion’s Mane, and Maitake Mushrooms at Home, by Stephen Russell

and Rush Wayne’s easy techniques (using hydrogen peroxide): http://www.mycomasters.com/ – here’s a PDF too.

Of course the classics are Paul Stamets’s book (The Mushroom Cultivator [here’s a PDF] and Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms) but they’re pretty outdated now, but still excellent for learning the art and science. Peter McCoy just published a massive book called Radical Mycology but it’s expensive ($50) and includes everything under the sun. If you just want to learn to cultivate and don’t need the philosophy of mushrooms, then go with the Russel book, Rush Wayne, or just read on Shroomery, and play from there.

And the best resource is always SHROOMERY! Good for learning and for trouble-shooting. These people know everything. As with any instructional forum, search the archives first before asking a question…

So this is a start, I hope it’s helpful!

joanna

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I’ve done some research on mycelium and written a text with refs to artworks and the likes. If interested, here: http://triple-double-u.com/introduction-to-posthuman-aesthetics/mycorrhizal-networks-v2.pdf

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Thanks for posting this @miga!
I also have an anthropologist friend studying plant communication. She’ll love this :slight_smile:

Definetely I am your Mushrooms student…(Phil and You). :slight_smile:

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Thanks for all the links Joanna!!
I didn’t know that they could even eat smoked(!) cigarette butts… nice!!

The oysters in utopiana looked really healthy – I just wonder if they get enough light in the cellar to produce a good harvest. You could try to take a bag upstairs for comparison.

I’ll collect some shroomy content as well and will post it here in the next days.

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@thomasmboa, Phil is the master, I’m just the social media worker! :slight_smile:

That PDF from Studio Murmur might be interesting for you. I actually brought a copy to give to you and totally forgot!

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There is an open call for mycelium lovers. Read bellow


SECOND CALL – DEADLINE – MAY 20

Mycelium Network Society

ELEONORE summer residency 2017, Linz, Austria

3-4 artists to be selected for two week residency during the period of

JULY 1 –SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

        Mycelium Network Society is an underground network imagination powered by fungus, spores, culture, kitchen, radio, transmission, installations, workshops and performances.  Mycelium Network Society, a brand new network initiative situated in a post-internet mudland, diverts the pursuit of magic mushroom, from a state of hyper-hallucination to collective fungal consciousness, and investigates the fungi culture, its network capacity to communicate and process information.  Mushroom as a commodity, a medium, an element, commands its own domain in human-disturbed forests. Sprouting across the moisture of rich soils, expanding its colonies, sharing informations, networking co-habitants, mycelium is ordained by Paul Stamets as “the neurological network of nature”. In this post-digital, post-media, post-internet, post-enlightenment phase of current-day investigation into cultural practices, we seek out mycelium to lead us out of the ruins, to construct political tactics, to salvage economic meltdown. Ultimately at nature’s mercy, we artists/cultural producers strive to convene a nature’s network merging our research in technology, biology and ecology, persisting in constant molecular communication a la mycelium mode.

This year, Stadtwerkstatt/infolab, in association with Zavod Kersnikova/Kapelica gallery in Ljubljana and CycleX in Andes, New York, launches Mycelium Network Society as part of Ecologies excursion at transmediale2017. As part of Stadtwerkstatt’s initiatives that focus on free/open culture and information technology, Station Messschiff Eleonore, once a survey vessel, now docked by Danube harbor, is powered by solar energy, equipped with radio components and modified to host artists in residency. This summer, the Eleonore summer residency investigates the theme of Mycelium Network Society and calls for artists who works with mycelium, mushrooms, fungus and culture in a networked, network-able construct. We seek residency proposals that expand from routing the mycelium underground to scheming political insurgency and tactical intervention.

Eleonore artist in residency is a Stadtwerkstatt’s project.

http://stwst.at/

http://donautics.stwst.at

http://air.stwst.at

Mycelium Network Society residency curation: Taro, Shu Lea Cheang, Franz Xaver

The open call is open to artists, cultural workers, social interventionists, growers, doers, activists, networkers, biohackers+++++++++

The requirement is to work with the medium of mycelium, mushrooms, fungus and culture!

Open call application - email to Shu Lea Cheangshulea@earthlink.net.

-a brief bio, -web link(s), -a brief project proposal – sketches – all in ONE pdf.

Application deadline: May 20, 2017

The residency is for two week duration and offers 700€ (500€ for per dium and materials, 200€ for travel, payable upon arrival at Eleonore)

Please state your desired dates of residency during July 1-September 12 period.

The Mycelium Network Society Eleonore residency projects will be presented as part of STWST48x3, the 3rd year of 48 hour non-stop extravaganza hosted by Stadtwerkstatt and held in association with Ars Electronica in early September.

     STWST48, 2015 - http://stwst48.stwst.at

     STWST48, 2016 - http://stwst48x2.stwst.at
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Oh wow!

I wish I could apply for this but I need to write my dissertation. (Edit: maybe I should apply anyway. This looks awesome!)

I’m going to post this through the MycoWorks social media channels.

Very cool !