Musings on Afterculture

By Natalia Borissova

What possible intelligent natural systems can we look to for inspiration and direction in the patterning of our human living environments, and for sketching out a kind of positive vision for the coming up Afterculture. How can we innovate more naturally? Granted, there’s nothing new in assigning to the “artist” the multifunctional role of a “mushroom”, nor in trying to cultivate 'other' culture through a mycophilic lens where everything is supposed to be mushrooms and magic, but still – when talking about life (after) culture, we can’t overlook the lowly mycelium - networks of fungi threads.

Looking at forestry mycelia links all the elements of the mixed woodland together, unlocks nutrient sources stored in plants and other organisms, redistributes those to wherever they are most needed, converts rock into food for other species, builds the soil and maintains ecosystem diversity. It does cardinal, life-enhancing work on a grassroots and in constant dialogue with its environment. Human urban interventions and artificial fertilizers cause mycelia to retreat and the soil to lose a key part of its vibrancy. (Less arti-ficial we are – better it will be for our network and natural process of inventively). But myselium is a very resilient organism. It can reconnect and remediate poisoned land. So, if it can thrive even on gifts, may be it also can remediate a society poisoned by relentless abuse of power and the contemporary culture decorated by artificiality, bureaucracy, competitions, kitsch, trends, 'dead' objects, projects, provocateurs, curators and animators? What if we inoculate society/culture with a mycorrhizal resilient fungus? When the conditions are right, it's mycelia’s multifarious fruits will rise up overnight, feeding critters, opening minds, 'poisoning' the world with beauty, seeding other mycelial systems, and growing into fresh territories?

As the mycelium exhausts the food sources in one area it expands outward in a circular fashion the fungus cannibalizes the inner mycelium, extracting whatever nutrients it can from there and moves them to the outer, growing regions. Whatever cannot be recycled is shut off from the growing region and allowed to decay. May be it's the time for the culture to cannibalizes the inner of itself extracting nutrients and redistribute them according to the real needs?

By analogy with mycelia as the vegetal part of a fungal culture, a “resilients-organism” (“resilium”) could be compared with a fungus which spreads out widely through time and space, popping up in the most unexpected places to spark joyful illuminations. It adsorbs complex reality upside down, digests it externally by relishing enzymes of curiosity, creativity and knowledge. It makes it available for the self-absorption and for other organisms to feast on. It’s important to note that this method - 'enzyme' release into the surroundings, absorption of the results and providing nutrients for the others is just a natural way of feeding for the bodymind of the resiliets. When enough nutrients is collected by the resilium network fruiting bodies emerge – flotilla feasts, mountain bear missions, remote sensing flight operations, shroomshops, augmented harvests and many other unique happenings. These fruiting materialisations respond to prevailing conditions and circumstances, and can be repeated in various forms as other creatures from all walks of life join in. The vaster the resilium, the more extravagant the fruiting bodies are that arise from the fertile undergrowth. When these “fruiting bodies” die down, mycelium is left. It is the essential part of the organism and is not a static object. It's growth respond to chemical signals of other members of the ecosystem. Efforts of the resilium need to be focused on the cultivation of healthy soil and ecosystem (aka a non-discriminative and co-creative environment).

What layout or design of our (food)environment could be called “nature-logical”? I assume that it is one that is “open” and links many possible components and organisms into one heterogeneous kingdom of useful relationships and mutually beneficial connections – among microbes, plants, insects, birds, mammals, and all the other inhabitants of our world, including people. When each individual organism has multiple roles and interconnections within this kind of ecosystem, edges can be optimised and resources reused. Problems, limitations and mistakes can be embraced creatively, and the environment thrives. There is no need to impose connections from the outside, as each of the ecosystem’s parts is self-organising. The design of this interconnected, self-sustaining ecosystem differs from the conventional, monocultural approach, where the parts are mostly disconnected from each other and serve just one single purpose within the system.

If we believe that cultural communities are real and not merely constructs used for formal and pragmatic convenience, that they can arise for the sake of mutual benefit among their members and come to act somewhat like whole organisms, maybe we can apply these kinds of models and principles for growing a resilium network? It should be a series of successional ecological stages that create the conditions that enable 'fruits' to emerge.

In the time of the Afterculture, human dominance and the monocultural attitude has to give up in favor of rotations and polycultures. Traveling site-specific interconnections with local human and non-human entities will imaginatively build a future that reflects the environmental, poly-cultural, mythic, rhythms and dimensions of our world.