Fungi Arts  - Mycelium As Mode is a graduate-level collaborative studio for learning and making in conversation with fungi. Research will happen through local field trips, place-based observation, hands-on experiments, readings, conversations with artists and mycologists, and participant-driven inquiry and artistic practice. We will encounter work by artists who engage with fungi, decomposition and interconnectivity across moving image, sound, text, performance, visual and digital arts. Together, we will attune to local ecosystems through identifying mushrooms in a variety of habitats and observing mycelial growth. Periodic workshops will take place at the RISD Nature Lab, and participants will have the opportunity for extended lab-based work. We will ground ourselves in creative, theoretical, cultural and activist discourses, considering texts by the likes of Anna Tsing, John Cage, Guiliana Furci, Bayo Akomolafe, Merlin Sheldrake, and Macarena Gómez-Barris. Participants will follow their own lines of experiential and critical inquiry to support creative work, sharing findings with the class and teaching one another. Final projects can be in participants’ media of choice. Individual and collaborative work is welcome throughout the semester.

Open to Senior or Graduate Students.

Elective