©2024 Alyssa Merlini

OB003 → Symbiocenic Game of Fungi

Symbiocenic Game of Fungi (2024)In a world where myco-based materials remain largely unfamiliar, this project aims to introduce mycelium into everyday objects. The choice of a chess set is not only a technical challenge but a way to engage users directly, encouraging interaction with a material often met with skepticism.

Still in its speculative stage, this work explores how fungi can be shaped into forms that challenge our perceptions of materiality. How can this humble organism, often overlooked, be transformed into something functional, beautiful, and sustainable? What might it mean to touch something that grows, breathes, and decays all at once?

Balancing two fungi species with similar substrate preferences but differing growth rates is a unique challenge. How to harmonize their coexistence without one overtaking the other, allowing both to thrive in the same space?

As the project evolves, it invites contemplation on the balance between structure and fragility, permanence and transience, within both the material and the object itself.
In this process, I am not the designer, the mushrooms are. I only listen, adapt, and provide what they demand, trusting that the outcome will reveal itself in its own time.
Speculative visualization of Symbiocenic Game of Fungi, December 2024


Mycelium experiments in two-part molds
Pycnoporus Sanguineus - 18 days after inoculation and incubation
Mycelium Pawn, Pycnoporus Sanguineus
Ganoderma Reishi on plate
G. Reishi under the microscope
P. Sanguineus under the microscope - Xdays incubated
Pycnoporus Sanguineus on plate



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