Idea

Mycelium covers all over the Earth and is aware of what’s going on up there. Its decomposing ability is the key of the nutrient cycling system, and can also degrade or remove toxins from the environment. Those newly learned information inspired me to be a missioner of fungus, broadcasting what fungus has done for the planet, so this is a project based on the perspective of fungus. Magnifying what fungus does by present it as a creature with thoughts.

Content

When no one’s near, the projector projects(or screen behind plays) the collage of the mycelium activities(growing, moving, decomposing, degrading pollution etc.) video footages, representing what fungus is doing right now. When someone comes near(detected by ultrasonic sensor), the image changes into camera view, and viewer will be capped with oyster mushroom cap(using OpenCV), a light-hearted way to show how close we are to fungus, to intrigue to be aware of what fungus is doing, and hopefully to make us be the positive force for the Earth, like fungus, instead of being a negative influence.

Materials

• Mushroom: Oyster Mushroom
  • commonly seen, edible, easily growing, can break down the pesticides, petroleum based contaminants and hydrocarbons based pollutants)
• Cap: Cork shaped as net, wrapping logs to grow out mushroom
• Body: Mycelium
• Base: soil in wood box

(3D model made in Maya)