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Go Ask A Mushroom

Musings on Afterculture

By Natalia Borissova

What possible intelligent natural systems can we look to for inspiration and guidelines in the patterning of our human living environments, and for sketching out a kind of positive vision for the approaching Afterculture. How can we innovate more naturally? I believe that humans are not the only intelligent organisms on this planet and would try to look into ‘plant intelligence’ in relation to mycelium. 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 mushroom and magic, but still – when talking about life, culture and collaboration, we can’t overlook the lowly mycelium - the vegetative part of a fungus.

Spawning the resilium

Considering mycoforestry and mycogardening mycelia links all the elements of the system together, unlocks nutrient sources stored in plants and other organisms, redistributes those to wherever they are most needed. It converts rocks and organic debris 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 intervention is damaging wild nature, artificial fertilizers cause mycelia to retreat and the soil to lose a key part of its vibrancy. But myselium is a very resilient organism. It is able to reconnect following damage and remediate poisoned land, decompose toxic wastes and radioactive pollutants. If it can thrive even on gifts, my next question would be: can it remediate a society poisoned by relentless abuse of power and mycofiltrate contemporary culture polluted by artificiality, commercialism, bureaucracy, competitions, kitsch, trends, as well as to control populations of 'dead' objects, bad projects, curators provocateurs, and cultural animators? In my opinion, one of the most significant problems with contemporary culture is that it tends to focus on the objects/pieces themselves and surface appearance rather than dynamic interconnectedness, system solutions that save labor, resources, energy and what is really important - relationships maintained/how do we treat each other — that what creates a whole. People are becoming less and less connectioned with one another as time goes on. How the everything/one is connected to each other is at least as important as what the pieces are.

What if we inoculate society with a mycorrhizal resilient fungus to generally enhance the health of our cultural environments? And 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 a “resilients-organism” (“resilium”) could be compared with a vegetal part of the culture 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. Btw, this method - 'enzyme' release into the surroundings, absorption of the results and providing food for the others is just a natural way of feeding for the bodymind of the resilium. When enough nutrients is collected by it's 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” arise from the fertile undergrowth. When mushrooms die down, mycelium is still alive. 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 (aka a non-discriminative and co-creative environment).

From mono-culture to self-sustaining ecosystem

What layout or design of our 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.

In the time of the Afterculture, human dominance and the monocultural attitude has to give up in favor of rotations and polycultures. Traveling and 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.

If we believe that nowadays cultural communities are not just merely constructs used for formal and pragmatic convenience, that they can arise for the sake of mutual relationships among their members and come to act somewhat like whole organisms, maybe we can apply these kinds of models and principles for celebrating life after culture?

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