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Week 7: Midterm Draft Blog Ver

When people hear about mushrooms they jump to, magic mushrooms or sometimes mushrooms for cooking however, there are a variety of different sides that people miss like growing mushrooms, foraging for wild mushrooms, creating with mushrooms, making art from mushrooms, and using mushrooms in the medical world. Here in America, when people talk about mushrooms it’s almost a surprise that those other realms are possible as we have grown up to believe that mushrooms are mainly bad to ingest unless they are from the market. 

This leads to the problem, negative assumptions about wild mushrooms that can be foraged and eaten or created into something new. In order to change these assumptions I will be creating a project that aims to challenge Western knowledge and stigma against mushrooms to be more positive through storytelling. The target market is children, ages 5-14, because my research shows early experiences with positive mushroom experiences will continue to have lasting effects as they get older.

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Week 6: More Questions

The assignment this week is to start formulating specific questions or defining a problem that you will be aiming to solve.

Questions:

How can we create a space built off of energies?

How do stories about mushrooms influence one’s perspectives? Is it a positive response or negative?

How can we change people's perspectives when it comes to mushrooms?

Why is it difficult for Western civilization to come to terms with intuition versus science? Where was that change/shift in perspective?

What has the rise in mushroom hunting/foraging done to the environment? 

How can we use stories about mushrooms to influence positive design featuring mushroom culture?

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Week 5: Jumping Down the Rabbit Hole

Demonstrate to us what kind of research you have done so far?

Ted Talks

Book, Mushroom Essences:Vibrational Healing from the Kingdom Fungi

Online Research

Continued research this week:

Beatrix Potter, “she bridged real life and fantasy by transmuting the animals and plants she observed in nature into whimsical characters and stories, and mushrooms have long symbolized this very transmutation, perhaps most prominently in Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland, which first captured the popular imagination the year Potter was born.”

Takashi Murakami: https://www.thebroad.org/art/takashi-murakami

Popular drug cultures & historical concerns

Traditional Japanese paintings with Western influences

Salvador Dali, Impressions of Upper Mongolia

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/blog/virtual-tour-mushrooms

In Europe, mushrooms were objects of horror & disgust, connected to witchcraft, poison and decay.

In the 19th century, as mushrooms drew rookie botanists and artists in to show what they were capable of, their reputation began to change for the better.

Today, mushrooms inspire art & design

The first recorded instance of ingesting magic mushrooms from a cave painting in sub-Saharan Africa

Ritualistic use in ancient Siberia, Africa, & Spain

The Mesoamerica

Divination, private healing, & rituals in Mayan & Aztec cultures

Scientific Side:

Research to fight depression & addiction

Designer & Artist Side:

Exploring the aesthetic, scientific, & cultural possibilities of these mysterious beings

Fungi may change the way we think about the world

The future:

Contributes to medicine & biotechnology as well as new ways of fighting against pollution & waste

Symbolizes resilience and a new way of life

Large mycelium ceiling pendant, Sebastian Cox & Ninela Ivanova

What kind of take-aways and questions have you identified or stood out for you?

Why are Eastern countries more willing to accept mushrooms and the stigma around them?

How does the stigma around mushrooms vary from country to country?

Is witchcraft as bad as they make it sound?

Why is witchcraft viewed in a similar light to mushrooms?

What is witchcraft? What does modern witchcraft look like?

Who are people that you want to talk to about this issue? Who is active in your area? (designers, artists, activists, psychologists, scientists, et cetera)

Reaching out to the Sonoma Mushroom & Fungi Club, interview?

Reaching out to Otis instructor about how mushrooms impact spirituality

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Fantasia, Dancing Mushrooms

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Week 4: Adjacent Subjects

Part 1:

I have condensed my area of focus into mushroom hunting and storytelling. At the moment, trying to find how they correlate and which direction I want to take these topics, at what point do they converge. After having the group discussions and input from instructors, I began looking into the joy in finding mushrooms and becoming knowledgeable and educating myself about mushrooms through stories from other people. 

I soon discovered misconceptions about mushrooms in Western cultures based on stories such as Alice in Wonderland after listening to a TED talk “Foraging for mushrooms and reconnecting with our food” by Walker Cammack. He went on to talk about his interest in mushroom hunting as a potential food source. Cammack grew up learning how to forage for food and found more of a connection with those meals because he knew where that food had come from, whether it be the walleye fish from the lake or the blueberries from the bush down the road. He spoke about the food culture of America and people having a lack of connection to their food which he believed lead to meaningless meals. But mushroom hunting and eating could be a way to invoke that idea of meaningful meals. 

Part 2:

Adjacent subjects to topic area: 

Food culture: Looking at the different food cultures around the world, not just America. Seeing how they differ and why they differ all the while discovering how connections through food help create stories or creative writing.

Medicine: Learning plants, and other natural ways of taking care of one's health, for less serious matters. Learning from different people and cultures how plant medicine has impacted the world and its growth to Western medicine.

Shamanism/religion: Beginning to understand mushrooms and storytelling from a different perspective such as shamanism. What stories or prophecies came to life because a shaman took a mushroom? Is there a ritual that calls upon these visions.

Fairytales/fables: Looking into how mushrooms are portrayed in fairy tales. What changed for America to be fearful of mushrooms? Whereas Eastern countries embrace mushroom culture? Looking into fairy tales like Alice in Wonderland and Fantasia. 

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Week 3: Research Methods

I want to continue with the topics of mushroom hunting and storytelling. It would be interesting to see if I can find a way to merge them together.

 Interviewing: I plan to talk to some members of the mushroom group in Sonoma County. I already reached out via email to see who would be willing to answer some of the raising questions I have regarding mushrooms, foraging, and medicine. Interviewing is one of the research processes I enjoy the most because I like hearing what people have to say and ask better questions building off of what they said. 

Persona: Last semester, I discovered the value of creating personas for my products. It’s an easy way to get to know potential consumers of your product. Or a way to distinguish who will not be a part of your potential consumers and why. Also, personas are developed for real world brands, companies, and products.

Humanities Research: I want to research the effects of mushrooms and explore why storytelling became so integral to humans. To research human connections that were found through mushrooms and storytelling.

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Week 2: Research Questions

Mushroom Hunting:

Is there an impact on the ecosystem? With the rise of foraging, are humans destroying the mushroom ecosystem?

What are the dangers when it comes to hunting mushrooms?

Is there a medical or spiritual influence from mushroom culture or is just about eating them?

Human Connection to Animals:

How does the human language/body language translate to how we work and communicate with animals?

What creates the connection between animals/horses and humans?

Does there need to be physical connections?

Is it done by giving them space?

Storytelling:

How has storytelling changed the world we live in?

How has the rise of technology changed how stories are told and how they are perceived?

What can storytelling do to make design more powerful?

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Week 1: Areas of Interest

Mushroom hunting is a favorite pastime of mine. No, not the hallucinogenic ones, I hunt the ones similar to the common mushrooms found in grocery stores. But I tend to look for mushrooms in the woods around my parent's house and anywhere that provides the perfect mushroom climate. Mushroom hunting is a relaxing time when I can go outside, typically after it has rained and destress while finding mushrooms. I enjoy being outdoors, and the idea of a forest treasure hunt that I can potentially eat the product of my labor after is motiving. Even if I don't get to eat them, it's fun to learn about the different species and variations of the mushrooms that make me so excited to keep going out and looking for mushrooms.

Owning and being around horses has been a large part of my life. I enjoyed learning how to ride, taking care of water and feed, figuring out how to find a saddle that is compatible for both horse and rider, etc. However, what I love most about being with horses is working with them. Every day is different because, like any other animal, they have personalities of their own. It's exciting to find a horse that is at the same level as you, and you grow, learn, and teach each other. Despite horses having small brains, they are still complex beings. Discovering and maintaining a connection with my horses have been rewarding for me and have helped shape the person I have become.

Stories. I thrive on discovering new knowledge. Stories are told through various methods, such as theater, movies, books, video games, music, or just speaking with someone. I enjoy listening, watching, and playing through stories because it opens my eyes to other perspectives and allows me to connect with people who have similar interests. It also helps me find new friends and maintain friendships because we were able to communicate over some form of a story and continue to share our stories.