===== Mind the Fungi =====

Dear Fungi Friends,

We are writing you today because you took part in one (or more) of our “Mind the Fungi” events e.g. “Walk and Talk” or TOP-Lab-Fungi Workshops.*

Since some of you asked us, how to stay in contact and how to go on with further, more self-reliant “fun with fungi”-projects we are now announcing the 

**Fungi-Friends-Stammtisch**

The Stammtisch is a monthly meeting of local fungi enthusiasts, meant to update each other on the current status of projects, to find new collaborations, or simply to find out what's going on in this network. During the Stammtisch we will exchange experiences, ideas and contacts in fungi-related areas like Citizen Science, DIY science, home cultivation, Arts, Design and mushroom related forest excursions, etc.

If you think this is what you waited for, we are happy to have you at the Fungi Friends Stammtisch.

We will meet Monday 9th of March at 19.00 at TOP e.V. (Schillerpromenade 4, 12049)

*****

**MATERIAL DRIVEN DESIGN. Sculpting with Bioplastic Textile**
**A two-day workshop with Fara Peluso**
**Fully Booked!**

**14 March & 28 March 2020 | 1 - 6:30 pm**
@ Art Laboratory Berlin, Prinzenallee 34, 13359 Berlin
No previous knowledge necessary | Workshop language: English
Registration mandatory for both days together: register@artlaboratory-berlin.org
Free entry
{{:fara-workshop.jpg?400|}}

Today Material Research is a central point in the theory and practice of designing new technologies, in cooperation with art and design. These fields are currently collaborating, merging their knowledge and practice to develop a new generation of materials, by focusing on specific characteristics, to create new environmentally friendly materials. Another approach, however, has also arisen in the last years combining making, crafting and personal fabrication of new materials through a form of Do It Yourself (DIY) biology and craftmaking.

This //Mind the Fungi// workshop discusses this new material driven design movement and methodology, learning how to build a new material by studying and using a living organism like mycelium. Discovering the features, possibilities and limits of mycelium-based materials, the participants will work together growing material and developing new material, building sculptures, assembling DIY packaging and drawing and cutting patterns on a new material made of biofilm.


**Day 1: 14 March 2020**

After an introduction by Fara Peluso into her design research and insights by the biotechnologists from TU Berlin in context of the project Mind the Fungi, the participants will learn how to inoculate mycelium into a liquid culture and prepare a biofilm based on mycelium and algae. The knowledge and techniques learned are functional in a DIY setting.

**Day 2: 28 March 2020**

After a two-week period, during which the biofilms will grow, the participants will be now able to use their new biomaterials to assemble sculptures or create designed objects like bags. Here innovative design practice will enable us to unleash the potential of these new materials created through material driven design.


//**Fara Peluso,** a Berlin based artist-designer, graduated in industrial design and graphic design at University of Spienza, Deptm. for Architecture, Rome. Through speculative research her work connects the human being with nature, living organisms and biological processes to form a deeper relationship. Together with biologists, she has pursued deep research into algae, taking constantly inspiration from them, experimenting and understanding how to work with them inside the fields of Art and Design. In collaboration with BioArt Laboratories in Eindhoven, she developed the prototyping of a speculative wearable accessory, WeaReactor, which connects the algae's photosynthesis process with the breath of the wearer (exhibited at DDW17 in Eindhoven in 2017; at Art Laboratory Berlin in 2019). Peluso has extended this knowledge over the last 15 months by working with researchers at the TU Berlin Institute of Biotechnology on mycelium-based materials as an artist-designer-in-residence in the project Mind the Fungi.


**Mind the Fungi** (2018-20) is a collaborative project between the Institute of Biotechnology TU Berlin and Art Laboratory Berlin. Biotechnologists and process engineers are researching local tree fungi and lichens (Prof. Vera Meyer/ Applied Molecular Microbiology; Prof. Peter Neubauer / Bioprocess Engineering). The focus is on developing new ideas and technologies for fungal and lichen based materials for the future. Art Laboratory Berlin bridges the gap between science, art, design and the public and offers various Citizen Science formats. The Artist- and Design-Residencies with Fara Peluso and Theresa Schubert bring in art and design as constructive sources of ideas for this research project.//
([[More information:]]http://www.artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-Mind-the-Fungi.htm)

'' With the generous support of the Technische Universität Berlin as part of the program Citizen Science - Forschen mit der Gesellschaft''