MA Musings

MA Practice blog of designer and educator Jane Anderson - Lecturer at BCU in Graphic Communication, and creative director of design studio http://www.currentstate.co.uk

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As mentioned in the previous post, identifying mushrooms can be an extremely precarious, partly because there are so many poisonous ones that look like edible varieties. After picking a whole bunch of what I suspected to be The Miller mushroom, to be doubly certain I did a spore print. You cut the stem off and place a slightly dampened mushroom on a piece of paper, place a glass over the top and leave for few hours. I left these overnight, and woke to two lovely spore prints. The Miller leaves a pink blush pattern from the gills so that helped to confirm it.

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Over this past fortnight I have been foraging and mushroom spotting in the Midlands, Warwickshire & Somerset. The autumnal weather and seasonal rains has meant there has been a few more varieties in the hedgerows & fields. I’m fairly new to foraging but one of my aims is to get good enough at identifying a handful with absolute certainty that I could pass on that knowledge to others. To be a ‘successful & not dead forager’ according to John Write from the ‘Foragers Calender’ book, all you need to is learn a handful of species. In the above images you will see a Blackening Bolete that turns blue when sliced & The Miller mushroom that is one of the best edible varieties in the UK.

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Click to play the video at the bottom of the post - Walk through of the Threads beta site hosting on Readymag. There are still quite a few little niggling things to resolve and content to add. I’m not happy with the homepage yet so this is a temporary holding page. I wanted the site to have a more click through aspect, and have additional pages that were hidden from view for the additional content, in stead of a full vertical scroll where all of the content is on show. In hindsight I should have opted for a horizontal scroll, so this is perhaps something that will change from the beta stage. I have asked a number of students, colleagues and other connections to be in the beta testing group and give feedback on the site so far. I will be asking questions around the UX & UI, does the content flow well, is the text size right, is it legible, does it need to be more in depth etc.

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Speculative Design - The Veiled Reading Room

An early concept I had developed inspired by Dunne & Raby (Speculative Everything, Design Fiction and Social Dreaming) is a 3D printed mycelium reading room. The initial design was influence by the natural forms of the Stinkhorn fungi, which has a very distinctive and sculptural veiled skirt which forms around the mushroom stem.

The temporary reading room would be placed ideally in a natural setting like a park or woodland, and provides a space for a sensory learning experience through an audio narrative recording - potentially accessed through the digital portal. This concept could be expanded to create larger reading space to house groups of 15 on small low mycelium chairs.  

My next steps are to start training on Cad and 3D software via Steamhouse and then to start prototyping. I feel this is an opportunity for me to start opening the concept out as a opportunity to collaborate perhaps with an architecture student or creatives to develop this project.

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Oyster Mushroom Time-lapse - this was filmed with really low-fi equipment, an old unwanted iphone 6 and a little camera tripod and filmed continuously over the course of three days. I would have preferred to have film it with better equipment, namely better continuous lighting to achieve a more professional look, but I’m starting to live with a less is more mindset. The darker scenes are when night arrives, it’s quite captivating to watch something grow at speed. This had reached over 7,000 social media impressions and loads of shares which I found quite crazy. They are such curious little things.

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The Hive  - Vertical Mushroom Farm 2020

Through the initial meeting with the slow food group I got connected to Gary Smith the head gardener at Ruskin Mill and The Hive. The Hive has a unique urban rooftop micro farm, where biodynamic produce is grown by students to use in the canteens and onsite social enterprise provision. It also comprises a gallery and community craft space, providing work experience opportunities for students with special needs and services for the local community.

Gary was keen to set up a vertical mushroom area on the Hive roof and has asked me to help him set this up as he has limited mushroom growing experience. He has procured a load of beech and oak logs on which I am going to be using plug spawn, which are pieces of hardwood dowel that have been impregnated with the shiitake fungus. This project is starting on the 20th August. I am really excited to develop my first community mushroom growing project as test bed for a larger set up in future months. I will be documenting this process and sharing with my networks.

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Slow Food and Serendipity

During the early stages of the lockdown and pandemic, I started to use the slow food hub Birmingham to buy a weekly food shop and it has been a bit of a literal lifeline to myself and many JQ residents alike. Slow Food Birmingham’s aim is to actively connect people to the food they eat and the land it is grown on. Through local food projects, educational events, and shared meals, they champion local food, meet growers, and shorten the food chain.

Kate Smith, the organiser of Slow Food found out about my Threads project and initiated a meeting in early August for me to link with Gary - gardener at the The Hive, Eat Make Play, The Real Junk Food Project, Spring to Life, and Jo Capper from Grand Union growing project. All of these organisations have a similar goal in sharing food with local communties, teaching them to become self sustaining and fighting food poverty.

I’ve been invited to talk at the Food for Thought online event that will be held on World Food day. It’s likely that I will be doing a mushroom growing and cooking demo - like the one I had planned originally for the MA show. I felt really positive coming out of the meeting. When you meet a whole group of like minded individuals that share the same goals, to develop growing projects as a way of connecting communities, sharing experiences and conversations, suddenly those ‘speculative ideas’ become a real possibility, not just a pipe dream. 

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Prototaxites

I’ve commissioned one of my L5 students Joe Frascina to develop a 3D rendered motion piece using Cinema 4D of the Prototaxites (ancient mushrooms) from a sketch (above) I supplied for the Facts sections of the website. The brief was to create a wireframe of a rugged landscape and with a human form to show the scale. I wanted the landscape to rotate to give a sense of scale of the mushrooms. This video came out exactly how I wanted it (see scamps) to so I’m really pleased with the results from Joe - check out his portfolio  https://www.joefrascina.com/

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Grand Union: in conversation with Jo Capper and Carolyn Morton 10/6/2020

As climate change becomes increasingly evident, global fuel shortages loom, and the pandemic threatens our very sense of food security, self-sufficiency and off-grid living are becoming increasingly attractive. One of my speculative plans has been around developing a community mushroom farm in Birmingham.

Through the artist Carolyn Morton, I initiated a conversation with Jo Capper who has been running several community outreach farms with homeless people through Arts Council funding and Grand Union. The Growing Project is a community-led growing scheme working with organisations who support the vulnerably housed and people in crisis.  It was great to hear Carolyn had also been thinking about the possibility buying a container to create a mushroom farm, so maybe a collaborative effort could be a future project.

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Homemade 3D printing Test

Unable to access the 3D printing at Steamhouse, I had a go at developing a low-fi version where I mixed some mycelium spawn with ground up cardboard and piped it into a silicone mould from a bag - a bit like cake piping. In theory, much like Blast Studio’s work, the mycelium would, I hoped, colonise the substrate and form into the shape the mould sets out. However, the substrate retained too much liquid, and the mycelium went mouldy pretty quickly.

This aspect of the project outcomes is put on hold until I can access materials and equipment at equipment at Steamhouse once more. I have also tested a number of substrates with mycelium swan to test the growing times and to closely monitor any changes.

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Fantastic Fungi Film - 26/3/2020

There  was huge anticipation around this film, with a global world release on 26th March. I bought a copy as I knew from the trailer is was going to be something I would watch again and again. It identifies 7 significant pillars where mycelium greatly benefit our lives health & medicine, psychedelics, culture and food/foraging/culinary, innovations, environment and biodiversity. Along with some stunning time lapses from the director of Louie Schwartzberg one of the most interesting nuggets of information was the  Stone Ape Theory - did pre-historic man become upright and have conscious from eating ancient mushrooms, thats how the theory goes and could very well be a plausible idea, 

Apart from taking part in the live screening, I watched all of the live Q&A’s with some experts in their field from the film. It’s a fascinating film and I would urge anyone interested in climate change, nature and our very human existence to watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxABOiay6oA

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Olafur Eliasson - In real life - Jan 2020

I’ve been following Eliasson’s work since seeing the abstract documentary on Netflix last year.

The exhibition was the most comprehensive presentation of Eliasson’s work to date, with 40 works spanning the last three decades from early installations to new paintings and sculptures.

Eliasson’s work opens up debate around a  number fields such as sustainability, migration, education and architecture.

Although the interactive spaces were an enjoyable experience and certainly engaging, experiencing it with so many other people all at once like a conveyer belt felt a bit impersonal. I did however really enjoy the displays at both the start and end that gave a highlight into the production, from the maquette to the hand written notes and research plans. I really like the process where you build a wall so you can see the sequential development of ideas. This is something I shall adopt with my major project plan

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Mushrooms - The Art, Design and Future of Fungi

Since my last post, I have gone mushrooms crazy. For my birthday I was bought the Mushroom at the End of the World book by Anna Tsing, an old observer guide to mushrooms and a little bloomsbury guide. I’ve been researching a trip to go foraging in Northern Italy in the Piedmont region and joined several mushroom forums to learn everything I can about growing. Quite fortuitously this exhibition at Somerset House started in Feb too Mushrooms: The Art, Design and Future of Fungi. Curated by Francesca Gavin the exhibition features a 130-year artists and designers including Cy Twombly, Carsten Höller, Beatrix Potter, Tom Dixon and Takashi Murakami. The exhibition celebrates the remarkable mushroom, and all the progressive, poetic and psychedelic wonder it evokes. I was really pleased to see Jae Lee Rhim’s Burial Suit in the flesh after seeing her powerful Ted Talk. 

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Fail harder

The first mushroom grow bag bought back from Le Champignon de Bruxelles unfortunately wasn’t a great success. Three weeks in and green mould had won the fight with the substrate. Undeterred I ordered another bag from Grow Cycle Uk. After researching I realised the gourmet mushroom market is quite well catered for. These easy grow kits produce their first flush in about a fortnight with a little bit of tender loving care - a fresh water spray two or tree times a day. I had a second smaller flush. During the first harvest I was taking part in Veganuary, with the intention of discovering more meals, trying new foods and drastically reducing my meat and diary consumption. One thing that I had realised whilst the mushrooms were growing was the sense of satisfaction you get from something you have nurtured. Even though this was basic level stuff, I got thinking how easy this would be to roll out by working with local communities to become self sufficient, and waste streams from local cafes or breweries, and very little equipment needed this could have real potential. There would be enough to feed communities, set up a supply chain for gourmet restaurants and perhaps make an income.  

So in came a plan of action. I would need to develop skills in growing my own so I could pass on the skills and educate about the circular economy and maybe give cooking demo’s to. The main goal would be to facilitate conversations around an appreciation for nature and how our ‘take-make-waste’ lifestyle is damaging our planet.

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Le Champignon de Bruxelles

The Anthropocene is leaving us with an overwhelming sense of helplessness. In design education and practice there needs to be a monumental overhaul. Any design practice that is unsustainable is deeply unethical; and that includes areas like advertising, branding and packaging. This realisation has presented me with my own conundrum within my teaching and design practice. What impact can I make, and how can I embed sustainability into the curriculum? Over the last couple of years, I have started to push this question and have introduced a module called Design for Good, which essentially encourages students to initiate a brief that solves a real social problem. However, this is the minute tip of a colossal iceberg – ‘chipping away’ now seems not enough. 

In a bid take a more serious approach, back in December I attended International Days, an Erasmus Conference in Brussels. The conference’s theme was Higher Education as Catalyst of Sustainability, and the programme included a mix of keynote speakers, presentations, workshops and breakout sessions. Bringing together aspiring eco-educators from all over Europe, over the course of the three days we heard from urban designers, landscape architectures, food technology scientists, urban farmers, and educators who shared accounts of their endeavours to incorporate sustainability into their work. I also took part in a in a visit to the cellars of a former slaughterhouse which are home to Le Champignon de Bruxelles – a start-up who turn beer waste from local breweries into organic mushrooms, an outstanding example of carbon neutral production and circular economy. This cooperative produce highly nutritional exotic mushrooms such as Shiitake, Maitake or Nameko. It’s fair to say that this visit has been quite instrumental in me developing a real interest in my own mushroom production and a real fascination in fungi in general. 

The conference offered a process which is allowing me to develop the curriculum, and provided some energising examples of what sustainability and sustainable development goals can mean in higher education. I’m certain that this experience will have a long-lasting impact, and I am already starting to plan new modes of practice and collaboration with other faculties across the university. With all of the research I have conducted on my Masters so far, I’ve seen really encouraging and inspiring projects. At times I’ve been disheartened by the scale of these innovations - most of them happening at a real micro level - but if we can take inspiration from their interdisciplinary working, their approach to working with existing materials, and their harnessing of intelligent designs with and from nature, we might just unlock the answers to the survival and future well-being of humankind.

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Final outcomes

The tests displayed and documented (through my exhibition and publication) attempt to critically interrogate and explore the material possibilities of charcoal as a biocomposite, while also evidencing the often futile and frustrating inconsistencies of results. Some turned out to be nothing more than a sticky black tar-like mess, unable to be pulled out of the mould, while others had a pleasing and tactile aesthetic, able to be rolled, shaped or moulded into a form. During the testing phase, I created a series of interrogation prompts – cut it, stack it, mould it, bend it, crumple it, tear it, break it, pour it etc. This allowed me to push the techniques, and to gain some new skills, so that I wouldn’t settle at the first pleasing outcome. All in all, I created over 30 samples.

On the table, you will find an array of successful and failed material experiments that fit together as a harmonious configuration. It’s been an important step for me to be able to acknowledge that it’s ok to let go and show development ‘warts and all’. I want the viewer to be able to manoeuvre around the objects; to feel and touch them. To see the variety of the outcomes, from matt to shiny, flexible to hard. The textures and tactile qualities are some of the main properties that I am trying to convey to the audience. Displaying the material in this varied and ‘unfinished’ way invites the viewer to consider its potentialities for themselves.

I feel pleased with how I have situated the materials, learning from AP1, letting the elements breath and have some connection to each other, understanding and testing what refinement means, but also being less precious and not trying to over engineer the elements - that is certainly the case with a hand printed book. It’s also been good to collaborate and learn new skills from other people, which I will do much more of going forward into major project. 

This is certainly a stepping stone. I am only just discovering and getting a feel for the properties of charcoal, and I am already planning a much more ambitious casting of forms that will allow for happenstance and unpredictability in the pour. It’s an exciting phase and I’m looking forward to seeing how the next step unfolds.

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Book Binding

I decided to print and bind my own under the guidance of this Simon Goode book - Making Books - a guide to creating hand-crafting books. I used a 5 hole pamphlet stitch. Now that I know how easy it is, I will do much more binding and printing my own books and sketchbooks, as well as invest in a little book binding kit. Good to acquire another new skill on this module.