#but he cant due to how he lives within the soil of the earth these days. but he was a chef and made rly good food always.. well its ok

[ryuseitai]

ii quite enjoy cooking although i dont know a whole lot about it but it is fun and i like to experiment and just wing stuff.. i also dont have a lot of like, resources bc my house is fucked up and nothing works and we own one pot, ive wanted to try baking out for a long time but the oven doesnt work yadda yadda yadda But well one day, whenever i live somewhere else, i can try it out.. but i liike doing what i can do here and it is so nice when i make food and its yummy :] esp if other people eat it too and also like it. i made cinnamony soft apple thing and my momma said is really good she liked it

[rebeccawebbart]

Human Connectivity with Nature Presentation

Below is the text to a presentation I prepared which focused on the connectivity between Humans and Nature. This piece of research increasingly helped me reflect on my physical practice, as i researched how TV, Scientists and Artist’s had theorised ways in which Nature and Man can co-operate together. Despite my work so far focusing on representing our co-existence with the natural world as distant by trying to highlight the differences in the human image and natural image, what I began this project wanting to do was generate a connection with nature, not highlight how distant our relationship is with nature. So with this presentation I researched on how the existence of Humans and Nature have been brought closer together.

Hannibal: Amuse-Bouche

Bodies are buried, alive but unconscious, and heavily fertilized, with mushrooms feeding from their bodies.

“The structure of the fungus mirrors that of the human brain, an intricate web of connections” - Hannibal

“Maybe he admires their ability to connect the way human minds cant?” - Will Graham

“Is that what your farmer is looking for?  Some sort of connection?” - Hannibal

This combined with the previous scene of the discovery of the bodies interested me. It intrigued me to think about the human body physically connecting with nature, being able to somewhat live in symbiosis with it, or to more accurately in this case, provide a platform to ‘give birth’ to nature.  

“he was talking about people having the same properties as a fungus, thoughts leaping from brain to brain, they mutate the evolve”. After talking directly to the killer, we begin to understand more about his interest in the fungi’s ability to connect in comparison to the human brain and establishing connections. The killer goes onto explain, "if you walk through a field of mycelium, they know you are there...their spores reach of you as you walk by, I know who you are reaching for”

This brought me on to consider, what is mycelium and is it our pathway to re-establishing a closer relationship with the natural world.  

Mycelium. What is it?

Mycelium is the vegetative body for a fungus that can produce mushrooms, however there are some species that do not.

How mycelium grows

Mycelium is a root system. Once a spore lands on appropriate substrates where conditions are suitable the spore will germinate; this is the beginning where the  mycelium forms from a single melismatic cell. Mycelium consists of the growing stem cells of the fungus.

Fungi are heterotrophs meaning they gain energy from their surroundings. Just like humans. The mycelium then grows by releasing enzymes from the hyphal tips of the mycelium, these enzyms go on to digest the surroundings and absorb nutrients. The mycelium grows creating a network, embedding itself through every particle of the soil, which can be so thick that hundreds of kilometers of mycelium can exist underneath a single footprint.                

How mycelium networks  

The mycelial network connects and colonizes itself to neighbouring plants and tree roots in order to transport both nutrients and information between them. It is where the fungal cells interact with the roots, that the exchange of nutrients takes place; this exchange not only connects one species but between species.  

This relationship of symbiosis is referred to as mycorrhiza which is a fungus, the reproductive organs are what we know as mushrooms.

Mycelium networks include a multitude of nodes and links like that of the internet, this consists of

The Hub: Hub trees, which are Larger, older, more established trees nurture their young, but also establishes a network to other neighboring trees.

Mother trees have been found to share their excess carbon to seedlings through the mycelial network increasing the seedlings survival.

When mother trees are injured or dying, they send signals of wisdom to their neighboring seedlings, to increase their knowledge and resistance to potential future threats. Thus, increasing their chance of survival.  

In conclusion, the mycelial network, creates conversation between organisms transferring data and nutrients through an intricate web, uniting individual trees to work together and increase survival.

Many state the similarity between mycelium and the internet, stating it’s natures underground internet, however I am beginning to think of it more of the earths Brain/central nervous system.

Mycelium networks and the brain

In summary, Neurons are impulse conducting cells that connect the brain, spinal column and nerves that make up the central nervous system in vertebrates. Neurons send electrical impulse signals and messages from one place to another within the central nervous system. This, functions very similarly to that of the Mycelial network. Both transmitting information throughout a network in the aim of survival.  

And just like the complex network of neurons in our brains if a branch of mycelium is broken, quickly, information being transmitted will find alternate ways of channeling due to multitude of routes.  

Not only is there a functional resemblance between both Mycelium and Neural networks, but there appears to be a physical resemblance, for example look at the similarities between the cerebellum and mycelium.

These observations are not a surprise when we realise that we are more closely related to fungi than any other kingdom. Just as we exhale carbon dioxide and inhale oxygen so does mycelium, Mycelium is also sentient and can sense our presence as we walk along the forest floor, it will reach up trying to grab debris from the aftermath of our footsteps.

The unification of Mycelium and Humans.

When we acknowledge how similar we are by design, it is interesting to think of our interconnectivity, existing as separate species and to further explore are we really separate entities from fungi, or has fate bound us to mother nature.

From the Ted talk by Paul Stamets: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world, here are a select few points that explore the benefits of establishing our own exchangeable network between humans and mushrooms.

In an experiment with four piles of substrate contaminated with diesel and other patrolium waste. One pile was a control pile, others were treated with either enzymes, bacteria and finally one inoculated with mushroom mycelium.  

The mycelium absorbs the oil and produces enzymes which break down carbon-hydrogen bonds.  The mycelium becomes saturated with the oil. When returning six weeks later, there were three substrates that were dead, dark in colour and stinky, however the pile that was inoculated with mushroom mycelium had in fact grown hundreds of pounds of oyster mushrooms. The enzymes had transformed the hydrocarbons into carbohydrates, which are fungal sugars that served as the fungus’ food.

Therefore, could mushrooms be the answer for reversing the problem of human chemical pollutants?  

Unfortunately, this was one of the main beneficial ways' mushrooms can save the world I could thoroughly understand, however if you want to see more about how mushrooms can tackle problems such as energy crisis’ you can learn more from this video:

https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

After considering the benefits of our collaboration between human and fungi in life, what about in death?

The infinity burial suit  

Artist, Jae Rhim Lee created the Infinity burial project, “an alternative burial system that uses mushrooms to decompose and clean toxins in bodies and deliver nutrients to plant roots”.  

She recalls “A recent study found BPA in 93 % of people 6 and older. But that’s just one chemical. The center of disease control in the U.S says we have around 219 pollutants within our bodies”. She then goes on to talk about how when we die these pollutants will be transferred into our environment, continuing the cycle of toxicity.  To combat this cycle, she proposes the idea of the Infinity burial project. She began exploring feeding her hair/nails/skin to fuel mushrooms, so when she dies the mushrooms will recognize her body and begin to consume her. Through this process she generated the idea of the Mushroom Death Suit which contains mushroom spores within the mycelium inspired crochet design.  

She has stated, “I image the infinity mushroom as a symbol of a new way about thinking about death and the relationship between my body and the environment...it’s a step towards accepting that someday I will die and decay. It’s also a step towards taking responsibility for my own burden on the planet.... Accepting death means accepting that we are physical beings who are intimately connected to the environment... And as the saying goes, we come from dust and will return to dust. And once we understand that we are connected to our environment, we shall see that the survival of our species depends on the survival of our planet. I believe this is the beginning of true environmental responsibility.”