We participated in the Reino Fungi Festival with a sensory activation on mycelium communication and workshops on artistic mediation and science

Between Friday 3 and Sunday 5 May, a new version of the Reino Fungi Festival was held in Pucón, under the slogan of fruiting bodies (visible and reproductive structure of fungi), in which the intersections of art, science, education and technology produced by researching and creating around this kingdom and the interactions they generate were explored and reflected upon. The community meeting was opened by musicians such as Andrés Condom and Akacia, along with a poetic reading by the National Literature Prize winner, Elicura Chihuailaf.

Our participation in the event began with the activation of the work Micellar Listening Networks by artists Rodrigo Ríos Zunino and Rodrigo Arteaga. The former was present to provide a performative experience through an artistic-sensory activation composed of sound, tactile and visual transduction devices that allowed spectators of different ages to connect with representations about the communication of mycelium networks in various substrates. Through this feedback and tactile transduction network that incorporated vibrations, sounds, water and samples of the Pleurotus ostreatus species (common name: oyster mushroom), it was possible to see, hear and feel the mushrooms.

In this regard, Ríos Zunino stated that the work sought to generate a mirror effect on the information network, chemical interactions, as well as the sending and receiving of signals that underlie the mycelium. “Together with Rodrigo Arteaga we sought to disturb people to reflect, to approach an object and to incite diverse points of view. This time, the design of the performance managed to deliver a discursive narrative that invites us to rethink what we understand by technology,” said the musician and sound artist, elaborating on how the experience activated by the work refers to “sensorily soft” technologies.

In search of lost mushrooms and training the senses

Among the talks and panels at the meeting were representatives of the Fungi Foundation and festival organizers, such as Gabriel Orrego and Daniela Torres, who recounted their experience in the field within the framework of the Re:wild project in search of one of the world’s lost fungi – together with mycologists from various countries – the Austrofalacius nahuelbutense or Big puma fungus, which had only been documented by science by mycologist Norberto Garrido and had not been recorded in more than 35 years. This species is endemic to the temperate forest of the Nahuelbuta mountain range, “a biological treasure surrounded by forest plantations that continues to be an ecological paradise with fauna, flora and fungi,” in the words of Orrego.

         Both researchers and scientific communicators were also part of our workshop and field trip called Language, Body and Mycelium, which we developed on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. We organized two expeditions to the Rukapillan sector of Villarrica National Park, after a change of location due to snowy weather conditions that prevented access to Bosque Pehuén, a protected area managed by our foundation.

In this regard, our conservation director, Amerindia Jaramillo, thanked the Park for hosting this workshop in the park and contextualized the joint work that is being carried out with Conaf in the Araucanía region through various initiatives aimed at the conservation and sustainable use of the Araucarias Biosphere Reserve, a conservation landscape of which Bosque Pehuén and the protected areas of the State of this region are part. She also highlighted the intention of generating collaborative initiatives that would allow for an enriched experience from scientific and experiential knowledge and art, with the valuable contribution of Fundación Fungi, Fundación Symbiotica and Museo del Hongo.

During the field trip, ecologist Gabriel Orrego invited the workshop participants to elucidate the reasons that make the fruiting bodies of fungi proliferate in autumn: “Summer is very dry for germination. In this season, however, humidity arrives, the temperature drops, daylight hours decrease and the conditions for this to occur are generated.” At the same time, he explained, it is a period in which “plants sleep or go into winter dormancy, a period of translocation of sugars to the roots,” a concentration taken advantage of by the fungi kingdom through symbiotic relationships with plants.

Daniela Torres, head of the Chilean office of Fundación Fungi, at the beginning of the walk, appealed to the training of the senses in the forest that invites us to look for textures. The biotechnologist described various species and behaviors of the fungi that appeared along the way (species that can be named in relation to their appearance, such as gelatinous ears, puff mushrooms and stick ears, among others). Thus, during the tour of the park, a journey was experienced “through the sporomes or fruiting bodies, which are the macroscopic expressions that allow us to witness ephemeral structures of the mycelium, the true body of the fungus under the ground (made up of a network of hyphae or filaments).”

Torres also reflected on the transformations that this event has undergone in these three years, emphasizing the cyclical nature of fungi. Thus, she explained, “we have nourished the two previous versions of the festival (mycelium and substrates, respectively) with demonstrations on how fungal structures are born and appear, while next year we will talk about spores, which is how fungi spread.”

         In both the workshops on Saturday and Sunday, we were joined by Carola Roa, Director of Learning at Museo del Hongo, who introduced the virtual exhibition rooms on lichens and fungi that this traveling museum initiative has developed, seeking to expand community awareness about the natural environment by creating sensory experiences with art and fungi. A fundamental part of her presentation was the showing of a short video about the work with deaf people that they have led to create a glossary of the fungi kingdom, which aims to “put basic concepts into sign language to understand the relationships of fungi, such as symbiosis, as well as to raise awareness of our body and multiple levels of communication that are generated with the entire body.” The work “Chilean sign language for mycology” is available on the Museo del Hongo website.

         In the line of body activation, the workshop also included artistic mediation led by the FMA’s learning projects coordinator, María Jesús Olivos, who taught an activation called The Mycelium Machine, which invited participants to generate movements and sounds that were linked to the experience lived on the walks. At the end of the trip, everyone was invited to reflect on the learning, wonder and emotions activated after these days that included walks in the rain, snow, and understanding the dynamics of these forests and the observation of mushrooms, which were revealed in various forms, textures and colors on this autumn weekend in which their kingdom was celebrated.