The Mycelium Project

A group project by Ash Stephens, Ben Smith and Nilesh Lala. Part of Victoria University's Industrial Design programme, the project aims to use Mycelium to 'imagine, devise and build' our own novel system.

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PRESENTATION SLIDES. 

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FINAL ASSEMBLY. 

Last night, we made a batch of straw paste and extruded a section in to the middle of the acrylic plate. We inoculated this with Mycelium to begin the growing process before tomorrow's presentation. Unfortunately, we should have done this 3-4 days ago.

We fitted the camera inside the top cap, which records the users interacting with the product to be played as a time-lapse later. 

While Ben and Nilesh were still working on our 3D printed components, Ash proceeded to make a laser-cut box to hold the straw paste-filled syringes. Unfortunately, this batch of paste didn't work out as it wasn't cured long enough in hot water - the straw didn't soften so doesn't extrude through the syringes properly. Ash also made a slide-show for the presentation - we won't have finished the project in time for presentations at 1, so we won't have our final photos for a few days. 

It was a group effort in assembling the the top part of the design, just in time for presentations.

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MAIN CONSTRUCTION.

We originally had four parts to CNC router - the main base, outer ring, top cap and supporting ribs. Only the first two were routered, as we simply ran out of time as the router is only in service Monday-Friday 9-5. We had to improvise, and ended up lathing the top cap. Some design considerations had to change because of this, however this wasn't detrimental to our overall aesthetic.

We used the bansaw to roughly cut the rib forms, however a lot of work needs to be before these look and function as they're intended - we're not quite sure how this is going to happen as there is no more time in the workshop before our hand-in.

The heat-mat fits perfectly within our routered form, which supplies heat through an acrylic disk to the Mycelium above. This ensures a constant warm growing temperature. As a design detail, wooden plugs were fitted in to the ends of the steel frame to create an overall more cohesive design.

While Ash works on the post-router work (such as sanding and presentation), Ben and Nilesh will work on the 3D printed parts; the drench-gun and gimbal mechanism.  

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STEEL BENDING AND ROUTER PREPARATION. 

With Ben perfecting the router files, Ash and Nilesh were in the workshop. Ash worked with one of the technicians to bend the metal tubes we sourced from Metalworx. Originally, we went to METCO with the hope that they would bend the tubes for us. They didn't offer this service, however the technicians said this would be easy enough to do ourselves.  Meanwhile, Nilesh dressed all of our wood (there is a LOT of it) so it could be glued. The image above shows one of larger pieces having been glued and about to be put in the wood press - essentially a giant clamp. Tomorrow, we're on the router!

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3D PRINTING THE GIMBAL. 

Nilesh focused on the gimbal design, which is a core mechanism that we need to get right. This will allow for our 'drench-gun' to have maximum rotation. Each user will use this mechanism to deposit the straw paste on to the acrylic bed which is then inoculated with Mycelium.

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SOLIDWORKS. 

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SKETCH DEVELOPMENTS. 

Ash's role was to further refine the design, both aesthetically and technically. The bottom drawing is a scaled drawing of the final design, which Ben will now take in to SolidWorks to create our router files.

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INDIVIDUAL ROLES.

We will be meeting up in 2 days time, until then we have established individual tasks.

ASH _Technical drawings _Branding concepts _Contact METCO regarding metal base

BEN _SolidWorks model _CNC router stl. file _Drench gun refinement _Camera options

NILESH _Gimbal mechanism development to hold drench-gun (a major component of the design) 

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FINALLY... PROGRESS! (WE THINK...) 

After meeting up Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, we're finally on the right track. Although there is still some refinement needed, we've conceptualised an abstracted mushroom form, acting as a sort of micro-lab to house the Mycelium and paste. Ben produced a simple render to show the general form and materiality of the design.

With this design, we're solely focusing on how the Mycelium grows where there is food. Specifically, we want a series of users to deposit the paste (or food) in to a dish using a type of drench-gun, essentially 'drawing' whatever the user desires on to the surface. Each user will be given a small amount of paste, with the next person adding to the path. Mycelium would have previously been placed within the center of the dish, allowing this to grow over the path defined by the users. This process highlights how the Mycelium will only grow if there is food available. 

Fitted with a GoPro in the roof of the structure, the entire process will be recorded. As the Mycelium will take around 5 days to consume the paste 'path', a time-lapse will be played while the installation is taking place so, if the users come back the following week, they will be able to see how the Mycelium consumes their part of the paste. 

This would be part of an art installation, with the Mycelium being cleared out of the enclosure each week to allow for a new 'batch' of paste and users.

We have purchased an Ag Pad (heat mat) to ensure a warm growing environment for the Mycelium. The mat surface temperature reaches 36degrees with surrounding soil between 22-26degrees - this should be ideal for growing the Oyster mushroom Mycelium strain.

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DRENCH-GUN MECHANISM.  

Although a fairly rudimentary design, we're thinking of using a mechanism similar to that of a drench-gun (used to feed medicine to live-stock) to deposit our straw paste. This embodies a more hands-on interaction as opposed to using technology to do the work for you, however we're still interested in retaining an x/y/z axis to deposit the material. 

We would re-design this system to make it visually cohesive with the rest of our design. We've decided we won't inoculate the paste with our Mycelium while it's in the drench-gun capsule as within a few days the Mycelium would have fed on the paste and consequently blocked up the gun. We will have to establish a way of inoculating the paste post-extrusion.

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FACETURE by Phil Cuttance

For some reason, all of us are drawn to this design by Phil Cuttance that was shown to us in a lecture a few weeks ago.

We particularly love the minimal but beautiful aesthetic, and especially the hands-on interaction between user and object.

As Mycelium is organic, we think this style of interaction suits our project more than that of 3D printing technology.  

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ISSUES WITH SOURING REPRAP PARTS. & FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS.

We began having major issues with sourcing a RepRep suitable for modification. The main issue was our deadline - we only have a few weeks left and we're still having trouble understanding all of the components required to build a completely functioning system. We found kits online, however these were out of our price-range. Unfortunately, all 3 of us aren't knowledgeable with the workings of 3D printers so at this stage we're talking with tutors to determine whether it would be better if we move away from 3D printing. 

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After an intense discussion with our tutors, our group has decided to move away from 3D printing Mycelium. Although this is disappointing, we're confident we're able to find another manufacturing system to give justice to our project. The rest of the studio session was spent exploring a range of other ideas; we feel like we've gone back a few steps, although we at least have the Mycelium ready to go - all we need to do is establish a more refined direction and go from there!

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THE MYCELIUM HAS ARRIVED! 

We received the Mycelium and straw substrate a few days ago, which was kept by Andrew Munkacsi up at Kelburn until we had a way to transport the materials to Ben's basement. 

Andrew kindly provided us with Agar plates so we could grow more Mycelium cultures. The foremost plate in the photo shows the Mycelium growing in the middle of the Agar - this much growth was achieved after 2 days in cold temperatures which is pretty impressive!

We're looking forward to creating our straw paste and begin experimenting!

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GREENHOUSE CONSTRUCTION. 

Ben led the construction of our greenhouse/laboratory to house our growing Mycelium. This is essential to ensure consistency of the environment which we will install with a reptile heating pad to keep the space at 30 degrees. This will also prevent any external contamination. 

We're hoping to have the lab constructed (in Ben's basement) within the next few days, depending on transportation of the wooden structure from the University workshop.

As Emma Robinson (theater student of James Davenport) has made something similar to house Mycelium before, she helped with how best to construct it.

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GROUP PRESENTATION. 

Today's presentation showed we're currently at with our project, and some of the elements that got us there. 

Our final design has the notion that Mycelium - being closer to animal than vegetable - has its own lifecycle. The render above shows different building blocks of a coffee cup (although this could be any object) that would be 3D printed in a straw paste to act as food for the Mycelium. We would inoculate this block with Mycelium and wait for it to grow before adding the next one. Once the product is complete, there would be a clear definition between each layer of Mycelium with the lower levels having fruited mushrooms as all of the food supply would have been eaten.

We plan to use a modified RepRap with a paste extruder called Discov3ry which allows us to extrude without heat. It is all open source, free and can be made with another 3D printer.

We will be using a program called Slic3r to generate the G-Codes for the RepRap, which is also open source and free.

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MEETING WITH ANDREW MUNKACSI, JAMES DAVENPORT, GEORGE FENN & EMMA ROBINSON

15.05.2014.

James Davenport is a theater lecturer who has experience with making Mycelium sets. We met with him and two of his students, George Fenn and Emma Robinson (who are also interested in using Mycelium to construct props and sets) to share ideas and hopefully work together so we're all successful in growing Mycelium. 

On our behalf, James has ordered the Oyster mushroom Mycelium culture and straw for 3D printing from Mushroom Gourmet which we should have by the end of the week.

Emma has kindly offered to help us set up our own 'laboratory' (in Ben's basement) to grow the Mycelium. According to Andrew, the Mycelium needs to be at a relatively consistent temperature (around 30degrees) to grow quickly and consistently. 

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Slime Mold Physarum Finds the Shortest Path in a Maze

Andrew Munkacsi showed us this video during our meeting which we found particularly fascinating, which sparked the idea of perhaps using a maze-like structure and giving/withholding food to control Mycelium growth.