Sporogenesis

Michal Teague (Rmit Vietnam)

Embark on a sensory journey of the world beneath our feet in this interactive installation seeking to recreate mycelium structures and consider hidden parallels with our own urban sprawl. How might we reimagine our place, not as solitary entities but enfolded within a complex, interconnected world through a collective drawing process that challenges perceptions of individuality and centrality by inviting connection with the more-than-human world. Engage with sporogenesis and mycelial processes, using humble pipe cleaners as conduits to connect with the ecosystems' intricate hidden web - 'HYPHAE.'

The spore sculptures are dispatched with instructions from Vietnam to germinate through making considerations of intertwining cultural and global ecosystems, digital and analogue narratives.

Key words: mycelial processes: urban sprawl; collective; embodied; sensory; more than human; sporogenesis

Drawing instructions for Sporogenesis  

Is it possible for humans to perceive being part of a more-than-human eco-system?      

1. Use the pipe cleaners to make a collective 3D drawing of hyphae - the network of rootlike threads created by fungus.    

2. Do this by twisting the pipe cleaners to connect, disconnect, reconnect, weave and entangle them to make nodes, roots and branches.   

3. Draw from mycelium structures and processes to perceive and embody this often-hidden interconnected eco-system.   

4. Think about mycelium processes such as: spore germination; inoculation; colonisation; absorbing; decomposing; transporting; nourishing; fruiting; communication (electricity signals); sporulation (nearly metabolically asleep during challenging conditions) and symbiosis (mutual benefit / co-evolving).

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Michal Teague

Michal Teague is an Associate Lecturer in Design Studies who facilitated the launch of the Design Studies program at the Hanoi Campus. For the past 10 years Teague has worked professionally as a transnational practitioner and educator in art, design and communication in the Middle East and Vietnam. Teague’s areas of research interest and creative praxis are participatory co-design, creative and cultural industries, urban spaces and transnational design pedagogy.