Musings on Afterculture

By Natalia Borissova

What possible intelligent natural systems can we look to for inspiration and guidance in the patterning of our human living environments, and for sketching out a kind of positive vision for a coming “afterculture”? How can we innovate more naturally? Assuming that humans are not the only intelligent organisms on this planet, I would try to look into “plant intelligence” in relation to resilient life after culture. Granted, there’s nothing new in assigning to the “mushroom” the role of a multifunctional “world healer,” nor in trying to engage this intelligent organism in the remediation of culture, but still – when talking about collaboration, art and life, we can’t overlook the lowly mycelium (the vegetative part of a fungus).

“We are born from fungi. 600 million years ago we separated from fungi. Fungi are our ancestors.”
– Paul Stamets (Living Green Interview)

In nature by just leaving its life mycelium links all the elements of the ecosystem together. It unlocks nutrient sources stored in plants and other organisms, converts rocks and organic debris into food, redistributes nutrients to wherever they are most needed, builds the soil and maintains its diversity. It does essential life-enhancing work at the grassroots in constant dialogue with the environment. Human intervention damages wild nature, artificial fertilizers cause mycelia to retreat and the soil to lose its vibrancy. But mycelial networks are resilient, survive catastrophes and able to re-grow. They remediate poisoned lands, decompose toxic wastes and radioactive pollutants. If fungi can thrive even on toxins, why not to challenge them in the remediation of a society and the mycofiltration of a contemporary culture – ones that are often overlapped and poisoned by relentless abuse of power and polluted by modern late-capitalistic values. I believe one of the most significant problems with contemporary culture is that it tends to focus on the “objects” themselves – surface appearances and formal pragmatic constructs – rather than on relationships between differing parts and how they treat each other. These relationships are what turn a collection of unrelated “matters” into a functioning system, whether it’s a garden, cultural community, or an ecosystem. By cultivating relationship we can save resources, energy, labour, ourselves, and work towards creating a holistic society.

What if we inoculate culture with a mycorrhizal, medicinal, gourmet and magic “fungi” to generally enhance its health and imagination? And then when the right conditions are here, multifarious fruits can rise up to “poison” the world with beauty, open minds and seed other mycelia that will propagate through trash territories. When the mycelium exhausts it's food sources in one area it expands outward in a circular fashion and cannibalizes the inner mycelium to be able to extract whatever nutrients it can get in there. Then it moves them to the outer, growing regions. Whatever cannot be recycled is shut off and allowed to decay. May be it's time to cannibalize the inner core of our decaying culture, extract whatever nutrients remain in the inner and redistribute them according to true needs?

By analogy with mycelia a “resilium” could be compared with a resilient organism which spreads out widely through time and space and pops up in the most unexpected places to spark joyful illuminations. It adsorbs complex reality upside down, digests it externally by releasing enzymes of curiosity, amazement and what else?.. inventively converts it in non-discriminative knowledge and makes all available for other organisms to feast on. This method of enzyme releasing and providing food for the others is natural way of resilium's feeding. As soon as enough nutrients are collected in its network, fruiting bodies emerge – mountain bear missions, remote sensing flight operations, augmented and non-green harvests, flotilla feasts, and many other unique happenings. These materialisations respond to prevailing conditions and circumstances, and can be repeated in various forms as other creatures from all walks of life can join in. The vaster the resilium, the more extravagant the “fruiting bodies” arise from the fertile undergrowth. When “mushrooms” die down, the essential part of the organism, is still alive. And it is not a static object. It grows selectively in response to the chemical signals of other members of the ecosystem.

What layout or design of our environment could be called “nature-logical”? I expect that it is “open” and links many possible organisms into one heterogeneous kingdom of useful relationships and mutually beneficial connections – among microbes, fungi, plants, insects, birds, mammals, and all the other inhabitants of our world, including the human species. Each individual organism has multiple roles and is interconnected within the system; edges are optimised and resources reused. Problems, limitations and mistakes are embraced creatively, and the environment thrives. There is no need to impose connections from the outside. The design of this self-sustaining ecosystem differs from the formal, monocultural approach, where the parts are mostly disconnected from each other, serve just one single purpose, and require a lot of labour and resources to maintain.

We are in fact the sometimes disconnected part of one natural whole. Learning from these models and principles, the human addiction to domination and the “mono” attitude could gradually change in favour of dynamic rotations and symbiotic communities. Or.. what do you think?