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The Mycelium Chandelier Grow Project is a bio-design project that engaged the public in building with fungus as a design material. It highlighted the opportunity for creativity and collaboration through the blending of fiber arts with biology and engineering. The project invited the public to explore a new renewable resource construction material as they create art with it. Over a period of a four hours, drop-in workshop participants were invited to press fungus seeded bark into 3D printed molds and set them into closed trays to grow over a period of a week, at which time they were baked. The resulting lamp shades were arranged into an art chandelier installation for the Tech Museum’s BioDesign Studio.
While the large lamp shades pressed in the workshops required many days to grow, workshop participants were also invited to decorate and design their own illuminated mycelium mini lamp shades baked and prepared by Takara prior to the workshops. Workshop participants decorated and add circuitry to these smaller creations and took them home with them.
These light shades made of mycelium reuse agricultural waste and are compostable, making them a sustainable building material of the future. What things do you imagine could be grown from living materials instead of built? Houses? Packing material? Furniture?
A 3D printer loaned by Octave Systems was also be part of the workshop and visitors to the space will be able to see how the 3D printed molds are designed and created.
The free four hour workshop occurred during South First Friday on June 2nd, 2017 at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. The Mycelium Chandelier was created from the forms pressed in the workshop and was installed in early January 2018 at the Tech Museum.
The Mycelium Chandelier Grow Project transformed an innovative Tech Museum BioDesign Lab workshop into a free and publicly accessible art project. By conducting this workshop at the San Jose Museum of Textiles, the project aimed to initiate a collaboration between two vibrant museums in San Jose and set the stage for future collaborations between these two organizations.
This project was inspired by the Mycelium Brick workshops developed by Anja Scholze of the BioDesign Studio at the Tech Museum.
Project made possible with a SVCreates 2017 Creative Impact Fund Audience Engagement Grant.
While the large lamp shades pressed in the workshops required many days to grow, workshop participants were also invited to decorate and design their own illuminated mycelium mini lamp shades baked and prepared by Takara prior to the workshops. Workshop participants decorated and add circuitry to these smaller creations and took them home with them.
These light shades made of mycelium reuse agricultural waste and are compostable, making them a sustainable building material of the future. What things do you imagine could be grown from living materials instead of built? Houses? Packing material? Furniture?
A 3D printer loaned by Octave Systems was also be part of the workshop and visitors to the space will be able to see how the 3D printed molds are designed and created.
The free four hour workshop occurred during South First Friday on June 2nd, 2017 at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. The Mycelium Chandelier was created from the forms pressed in the workshop and was installed in early January 2018 at the Tech Museum.
The Mycelium Chandelier Grow Project transformed an innovative Tech Museum BioDesign Lab workshop into a free and publicly accessible art project. By conducting this workshop at the San Jose Museum of Textiles, the project aimed to initiate a collaboration between two vibrant museums in San Jose and set the stage for future collaborations between these two organizations.
This project was inspired by the Mycelium Brick workshops developed by Anja Scholze of the BioDesign Studio at the Tech Museum.
Project made possible with a SVCreates 2017 Creative Impact Fund Audience Engagement Grant.