Bellec & Fussner

“Mycelia Side Table, Iteration N° 01 + 01”, 2014

Mycelia grown bio-composite, galvanized steel.

Dimension: 18x 27 3/4 x 15 1/4 in. (? cm.)

Produced for Material Spectrum Lab, New York. Number one from the edition of 3. Table top grown grown in New York city, made from a pine-chip & sawdust bio-composite. Underside of table with leather tag laser with artist’s signatures and ““Variation N˚ 01 + 01, 2014/05/16/Collection Mycelia Side Tables/Edition Material Spectrum Lab, limitèe à 03 exemplaires.” Comprising of one table, the original prototype.

//////////////////////Introduction

Paul Stamets talk about how mushrooms can save the world inspired us to explore the properties of this bio-material. Prior to this talk we had also developed a slight ambient awareness towards the potential of mycelia as innovative bio material that has the potential to impact our planet. Without this awareness I do not think we would have fully committed ourselves to learning and discovering more about mycelia and its amazing properties. The inquiry into this medium has been extremely fun as we are considering to keep using the medium through the summer to see what sort of furniture we can grow. There are only a handful of people around the world actually using this material to grow furniture, one of the Phil Ross (coincidentally my brother’s professor at USF) is flagship artist. Any sort of aesthetically pleasing design that also performs structural integrity would be able to warrant a decent amount of attention from customer or potential media.

//////////////////////Setup

Brief: Grow a planar surface out of mycelia that will act as a table top surface. We then combined the mycelia with a found material, in this case we looked towards piping to create a foundation structure. Scroll over pictures to see action caption.

MYCELIA SETUP

Ironically we found a polystyrene container to grow the cultures in

Mixing the sawdust and mycelia to create a higher resolution mold

We tried wax paper first but we soon found that this was not the best option

Macro shot of mycelia growth, note that this growth only occurred on the outside.

We opted for a plastic sheet to host the mycelia in the frame

Spreading the bio material inoculated with mycelia culture

Breaking up chunks for higher a higher resolution mold

Applying even pressure and compacting the material down to create a denser growth structure

We poked small holes into the film to allow for minimal air flow, no air flow would arrest mycelia growth

MYCELIA_STATUS_MAY11

Checking on growth, mycelia hasn’t fully grown

Edges show mycelia has grown through but density is not high

Overall strength of the table top is not strong enough, roots have not grown through to support biomass

We resealed this mold with more airflow.

We decided to stop control after 9 days and proceed to dry and bake

Control taken out, growth is not consistent

Fragmentation apparent indicating mycelia has not grown through the biomass

The one white spot indicates dense mycelia growth

Slice indicates fragmentation in the growth.

Some materials we are considering to use for mycelia sculptures

Chosen materials to test for mycelia sculptures

Sealed mycelia culture, approximately 11 days sealed

No oxygen in the sealed mycelia bag, arrests growth

MYCELIA_STATUS_MAY13

MYCELIA_STATUS_MAY14

New culture batch, after 3 days from bag

//////////////////////Conclusion

The biggest take away so far from our experimentations with mycelia as a medium is that it is undeniably an a resilient bio-material, a living structure. Conceptually if you think about growing structure, it’s quite mind blowing and a huge departure from current materials that are used to build, construct and complete things.

We have just finished growing the table, it has been baked and we will be posting another status update in the coming days. We are now growing another batch of mycelia culture to create several more side table forms and potentially other types of furniture.

The use of material in a larger context is subject to many potential roadblocks, at this point in time very little people are using this material. This is good for us (Ambroise & myself) if we want to release some work since we will be considered “innovators” in the field, however for a future with a more diverse array of building materials there need to be more people working with the material. That will be the difference between mycelia, hemp, bast fibers, and other bio materials.

Proprietary strains is an extremely short sighted measure, if the businesses and people that are committed to creating a more diverse material spectrum in our world then this knowledge should be opensource. At the end of the day, a hobbyist more often than not won’t setup a competing packaging company and try to undercut you.

Bibliography

http://www.ecovativedesign.com/

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

http://cleantechnica.com/2012/01/05/in-a-manufacturing-first-innovative-material-is-grown-by-fungi/

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/07/30/mushroom-house-ecovative-furniture-from-shrooms/

http://www.madaboutmushrooms.com/mad_about_mushrooms/2013/05/in-the-market-for-new-furniture-how-about-furniture-constructed-from-mycelium.html

For my 3D print I though to expand on material interaction and basic system cycles. I am interested in expressing cycles in work, I am not sure why, I use to work in business and although cycles exist in this space most of them are single throughput cycles. There is no regeneration of materials, post use scenarios are not considered. Since post use scenarios are not factored into many designs we live in we have to deal with the consequences of post-use design scenarios, also known as externalities, a nice way to box all problems that are not of direct consequence to our actions into a single word. Although inherently this piece is not even a pure representation of the idea, it does convey the idea of a post-design scenario, where the work keeps existing and interacting with it surroundings.

Much like a plastic bottle we throw away interacts with a multitude of different systems, my thoughts on a plastic bottle:

“Something that comes to mind is that many of us forget that a piece of waste, in this case a bottle or a can continues to design even after it’s intended use. What I mean by this is that the bottle passes through various systems after it’s initial use, man-made systems like garbage disposal and non-human systems like the ocean. The bottle continues to impact and design the space around it. For example a bottle might enter an ocean, the bottle might perform a number of different actions in the ocean such as floating, sticking with other agents, interacting with living creatures or even breaking down and manifesting itself beyond a singular existence of just being a bottle. Sometimes bottles change form back into something more of a polymer structure break itself down to hundreds of millions of little bits and starts to design on a micro level. Can you imagine a coca-cola bottle designing on the micro level?! Not many things have the ability to change form and operate on different scales but plastic bottles do. The bottle starts interacting at the base of the chain and ecosystem. However it’s design impact is plentiful and efficient harnessing ocean currents these polymers are able to spread and diffuse where ever the power of the ocean takes them. In many cases these polymers diffuse within the ocean food chain. However we don’t know what that will mean for us humans who may not see the effects of bio magnification till our children are born. We do reside at the very top of the foodchain despite our inclination towards other top predators. Since we are at the top of the food chain the magnification of the polymers/petrochemicals in a diet that consist of more seafood could be disastrous. I think understanding the implications of a bottle’s journey and its ability to continue designing and impacting spaces even after it has finished it’s initial task that we designed it for could be a story that may change a persons perspective after they’ve seen the systemic impact of just one bottle, let alone hundreds of millions of plastic bottles.”

Preliminary sketches

One of the first drafts for the tuber foundation

Printing the first tuber foundation proto-type

Printing the first tuber foundation proto-type

Print just finished now to remove all these supports!

Print just finished now to remove all these supports!

Spiral axis for potato to sit on

Spiral axis for potato to sit on

Spiral axis for potato to sit on

Final iteration of the potato sculpture

Final iteration of the potato sculpture

Final iteration of the potato sculpture

Several failed prints, finally the last one worked

Several failed prints, finally the last one worked

Potato sculpture with roots trained into water basin

Macro shot of roots dipping into the water

Macro shot of roots dipping into the water

Potato sculpture profile view

Potato sculpture profile view

Top view of the potato roots dipping into the water

Top view of the potato roots dipping into the water

Roots dipping in!