Mycocene is a speculative future. It symbolizes a transition away from the Anthropocene towards a future where our current use of technology is composted into one that has symbiosis in mind.
Symbiosis within Mycocene blurs the line between conventional technology and nature. It explores uses of technology that do not attempt to save nor exploit our ecosystems, but augment and communicate with them.
Myco, the root for Mycelium, is the communication highway between species. It is an integral link within ecosystems, functioning like an Internet of nutrients. In the spirit of this metaphor, the Mycocene project repurposes electronic waste to be in symbiosis with this highly advanced natural system of mycelium–foregrounding the immense intelligence that nature exhibits which, as a species, we (humans) choose to ignore.
The somme collective received the New Media Creation Grant Caisse Desjardins du Plateau-Mont-Royal, offered through a partnership between OBORO and the Caisse Desjardins du Plateau-Mont-Royal. The Physarum used in Mycocene was grown in the Speculative Life BioLab, a hybrid research-creation laboratory that is part of the Milieux Institute for Art, Technology and Culture at Concordia University, Montreal. This project was funded by Concordia's Fine Arts Student Alliance & Concordia's Student Union.