visions of the fungicene (2022)

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The space-time crises we are currently experiencing increasingly confront us with signs of the melting of time, shifts that occur not only at a material level but also ontologically. What possibilities do we have to glimpse the functioning of other worlds and recognize the existence of pluriverses? Starting from this same strangeness of contemporary viscosities opens up the possibility of imagining worlds designed by other non-human agencies, even beyond our time.


Visions of the Fungicene is a speculative approach to articulating new spatiotemporal frameworks for future ecosystems. Through digital media, it depicts a possible scenario of planetary terraforming (post-Anthropocene), co-designed based on the biological principles found in the morphological patterns of various fungal species. These patterns guide artificial intelligence algorithms to generate ecosystems, planetary landscapes, and neo-topographies: synthetic territories that would reconstitute the current scenes of devastation in another world.


In approaching the design process of this imaginary, a bridge of symbiotic methodologies is enabled between fungal intelligence and artificial intelligence. Using databases containing photographs of three genera of basidiomycete fungi: Agaricus, Amanita, and Suillus, a machine learning model based on StyleGAN2 (an artificial intelligence program) is trained to learn the patterns of textures and morphologies of fungi to generate new series of images based on these patterns.

Fungicene: VR360 space

In relation to the concept of Symbiotic Imaginaries, the question arises: Can non-human agencies guide technological processes for the design of other worlds? Faced with the imminent melting of the limits between biological and technological systems, we are faced with new relationships and aesthetics that emerge from the slides between them, complicating notions about the natural and enabling the appearance of new worldviews of the living.

Exhibitions

Fungal Terraforming Metaverse in Mozilla Hubs

Virtual environment created in Mozilla Hubs using Rhinoceros + Grasshopper for 3D topographic reconstruction of images generated by the machine learning-trained model.