Studio Practice: Conscious Creatives: Sustainability of Fungi

Idea:
With only a week to complete the brief, the idea generation stage had to consider what was achievable with the time and resources at hand.

Off the back of the research the design wanted to try and investigate fungi as a material, making a production that mirrored the uses of fungi, such as a light or plant pots out of the sustainable fungi material. However, after investigating the methods required to produce the material, the design would need 10 days for it to fully grow. This was not enough a time to fully develop the project, and as such the design had to look for a way to still incorporate this information.

The research stage of the project was substantial and found many ways that fungi represent sustainability. There were a lot of findings that were relevant to the brief, and so the design had to find a way to concentrate all this information.

The initial ideas ranged from a postcard series of the various fungi, to medicine packaging, to posters. However this did not seem substantial enough to solve the design problem. The design wanted to communicate as in depth as possible the wonders of fungi in aiding a sustainable future.

The particularly notable area of interest was the underground network of mycelium that mycologists have recently discovered to be natures internet. This linked to research undertaken for my COP3 investigation, into tree communication. The idea of 'The Earth's internet' could provide really fun visuals, and the ability to digitalise this kingdom to visually communicate these ideas to a populist audience.

As such, and off the back of the short 60 second documentary brief, the design decided to create a full length documentary that incorporated all the areas of research, and depicted the various forms of fungi, mushroom and mycelium found.

Initially it seemed easier to edit the audio together for various videos and talks found during the research stage. However after more thought, lots of the videos had weird background music that would not flow well together, and take longer to fit in a coherent order. Accordingly the design decided the most efficient way to communicate a coherent message that covered all these areas would be to write a script and get someone to narrate the documentary.

In order to keep an audience/viewer engaged for a lengthy period (past the 7 second time span of an online scroller), the documentary should include a constant change of visuals/shots, the audio should be engaging, with a neutral voice and the colours and patterns considered.

Consider:

- Narrative & narrator

- Script

- Time span (2-3 minutes?)

- Sound use

- Background music

Writing a script:

Using the information gathered from research, from documentaries, TedTalks, youtube learning videos, and articles, the design put together a script that covered the main ideas in a clear way that communicated the intended message.

-Manuscript-

Mushrooms are deep reservoirs for very powerful medicines, whether that be for humans or the planet at large. The extensive uses of fungi include;

- Foods

- Medicines

- Hallucinogenics

- Fibres

- Biofuels

- Teas

- Textiles

- Dyes

- Materials

- Composting

- Decomposition

- Recycling

- Water filtering

This incredible diversity of uses make the fungi kingdom a remarkable environmental, social and economic resource.

Fungi perform the same jobs as organs like our brains, kidneys, lungs and stomachs. They break down compounds, found in organic material like wood, and many other living things. They can also break down hydrocarbon bonds, such as those found in fossil fuels. They break down these bonds into carbohydrates. The carbs attract insects and birds, bringing seeds and in the process create a whole ecosystem of life.

In this way, fungi are able to uphold and defend much of the natural world.

They are the planet’s fruiting body.

The fungal function of decomposition allows plants and animals that eat them to exist, as it returns the elements they take from the soil. Decomposition from fungi therefore recycles the nutrients needed by plants, animals and the fungi themselves.

Leading mycologist Paul Stamets states ‘The strength of an ecosystem is a direct measure of its fungal diversity”.

Fungi feed on the diseased of almost all organisms on the planet, converting organic matter that we’re all made of, back into soil, from which new life will spring.

In this way, fungi thrive on death, and in the process make all life possible.

They can be seen to represent the cyclical nature of life, and therefore encompass the idea of maintaining change in a balanced environment. Through the nature of fungi’s existence, human beings can and have utilised this species capabilities to aid many of our needs, beyond simply consumption, medicines, and for producing various materials.

The internet connects more than half of the world’s population through an invisible web of servers, computers and devices. This allows otherwise separated people to connect and interact, providing access to vast amounts of information.

Mycelium is the underground network of fungi transmitting information and nutrients to the plant kingdom. Under every footstep we take, there is an estimated 300 miles of mycelium.

The organic internet of a mycelium network can be described as a mosaic of cells. Interfacing Mycelial networks upon one another, over every landmass of this planet.

Without fungi all the plants would quickly die because there would be a lack of nutrients. It is the recycling of dead plant material back into the ecosystem that is made possible by the mycelium. They shuffle carbon and nitrogen back and forth according to who needs it. They are interacting with each other, trying to help each other to survive. This teaches us that co-operation is what nature seeks to consolidate and conserve, and it is the species which can make itself most user-friendly to its neighbour species which actually survives.

Mycelium extends through the soil including inside or around plant roots. They allow the fungi to absorb nutrients from the soil, like nitrogen and phosphorous, exchanging with plants for carbon in the form or sugars, creating a symbiotic relationship between the two kingdoms.

Research also shows that the mycelium networks are used by plants to ‘talk chemically’ through the mycelium, releasing chemicals that tell nearby plants if something bad is coming their way. For example, when tomato plants are connected by a mycelium network, and one plant is attacked by a pest, nearby plants will activate their defence before the pest reaches them.

Entire forests can be interconnected. However, like with our internet, connectivity within an ecosystem is not evenly distributed. Older, larger trees have been found to be more connected, like some servers in the human internet. These highly connected trees are called hubs, or mother trees. They have big root networks that host a greater diversity of fungi, allowing them to interact with a lot of other plants. These mother trees can even send ‘care packages’ of extra nutrients to their kin to help them survive. When they’re injured or dying, they release a surge of carbon into the network which nurtures the next generation of trees, even if they’re a different species.

There are even hackers in this underground internet. Some plants can claim territory and influence community dynamics by sending toxins into the mycelium network. Those that are immune to the toxins thrive, while others struggle or die off. Harmful worms, parasitic plants, and fungi can find their way to the plants they target by following chemical trails.

This amazing chemical information superhighway has been right beneath our noses for eons and yet we’ve had no clue to its presence. Now that we can finally plug in, it might just help us connect with the planet’s flora in much more constructive ways.

Knowledge of this interconnectivity is helping improve our relationship to plants. By preserving highly connected mother trees from deforestation, we can help forest regrowth happen more quickly. Additionally, farming in soil with an idea of this network, means plants can warn each other of invading pests, which may reduce the need for pesticides.

Like with the human internet, the internet of the earth increases security, awareness, and knowledge for those connected to it – which could also include us.

19^th century mycologist William Hague coined the word fungalphobia, in response to the negative public reception of fungi being rooted in British culture, and not being universally human, instinctual or well-founded. Our doubts on this kingdom has set us back thousands of years in mycological advancements compared to the eastern world who have embraced the fungal species.

Fungi go far beyond our stigmatisations of it as mould, food or drugs. The most recent estimates predict there are around 5 million different species of fungi with around 2,000 being classified each year, and an estimated 93% of fungal species which are still unknown to science.

The potential of fungus in the development of sustainable materials is currently being investigated.

Scientists, designers and dreamers are working on an organic revolution, labelling the potential of fungi to be ‘the plastic of the future’.

With technological advancements, humans can now address our current plastic catastrophe through the sustainable development of fungi material that is strong, heat and water resistant, as well as biodegradable.

The fact that we lack the language skills to communicate with nature does not impugn the concept that nature is intelligent, it speaks to the inadequacy of our skill set for communication.

Such developments in the world of fungi can aid a future where humans understand that we aren’t separate from this planet, we are of this planet. That positive trajectory can change the arc of the future into one that is truly sustainable in our economic, social, and environmental outputs.

The design then got in touch with an actress who was willing to record herself reading the script. The communication with the actress was hard as it was over phone, meaning the design had to wait for the various recordings before it could accurately edit the documentary.

Forward thinking, the design thus decided to ask for a variety of versions of the recording, with different speeds and tones, so that the audio could be edited accordingly with the desired outputs (instead of messaging back and forth for re-recordings of certain sections).

The brief set to the narrator was 'Masterchef-esque'.

The narrator replied saying the test run was around 3 minutes.

Initial Introduction Type Experiments:

The type experiments wanted to use a bold and clear san-serif typeface that would reflect an old computer (due to its green type connotations - green = nature) but not be in mono style, to add an element of modern day.

The initial typographic treatments explored movement and shadowing. It was noted that keeping a black background would be best suitable for the imagery and general tone of voice.

Adding layers:
Once the motion type was exported, the design tried various desktop/monitor styled effects to create the intended visual output.

Imagery / Animations:

Informed by the vast imagery collected during research of various mushrooms and computer generated depictions of the mycelium network, imagery was produced using the Forge of Neon software. The imagery considered the range of colours - from bright multicoloured mushrooms, to the more mundane, the range of shape - from tall and pointy to short and fat mushrooms, as well as the layers to present fungi rather than mushrooms (which are the flowers of the fungi). This was achieved by depicting the flow of energy / skeleton of the mushroom.

To get various angles and perspectives, as one would when filming a documentary, the same imagery was rendered with different angles, and with different zooming quantities, so that when edited together, the design would translate similar to a film, and maintain engagement.

The initial software