Mycorrhizal Messages
Fall 2021
Mycelium communicates with trees.
Trees communicate with one another.
Humans are starting to understand how it all works.
What happens when we understand how to listen in?
What would we say when we figure out how to communicate with the forest?
A design experiment to see what might happen…
The Question
Using the mycelium network, which already forms a structure for connection and communication within natural environments, can humans insert themselves in this interchange and communicate with other fungi and plant species?
What would the communication process (and tools) look like, and what kind of information would be conveyed?
Test #1
Test #2
This mushroom is the flowering body of a vast mycorrhizal network, which connects the entire forest in which you stand. It sends and receives nutrients, minerals, hormones, and more - encouragement, warnings, memories. You know it’s always talking, and now you have a way to talk with it as well.
Now that you are in front of it, with a familiar device, what do you say?
Test #3
Now that the subjects were able to talk to the mycelium, there seemed to be the missing element of interchange that is required for a meaningful conversation. Therefore, using the data of conversational topics to assign meaning to messages that are actually being conveyed by the mycorrhizal network, I designed a speculative device that gave the subjects more at stake in the experiment.
Subjects were instructed to wipe their skin with strips and insert it into the device, and were told this was a form of “chemical caller ID.” The device would then translate their messages into various chemical inputs, which are inserted into the base of the fruiting mushroom.
Results
The final apparatus used by the subjects resulted in:
Longer conversations
More genuine topics
More aware of their environment
Forgot about the vial system - got absorbed by the conversation
Made them think about the transactional nature of human conversation