OUTPUT
Social impact
Mind the fungi
Keywords: arts to STEM, network utilization, sustainability
Who?
Departments of Applied and Molecular Microbiology and Bioprocess Engineering of the TU Berlin and the art and research platform Art Laboratory Berlin.
Artists: Theresa Schubert & Fara Peluso.
What?
Mind the Fungi is a project which uses the interdisciplinary concept from STEM to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Art) to expand scientific research with artistic and design-based research. Work is done with Berlin citizens, artists and designers to develop new ideas and technologies for mushroom and lichen-based materials. “Walk & Talks” are public events and a part of Mind the Fungi, to explore the potential of sustainable biomaterials from fungi. Also, an “Artists in Residence” program brings art and design into this project supporting the aspect of sharing research processes and findings with the public.
Why?
All this was to provide citizens with an opportunity for scientific collaboration, to give the public an understanding of the importance of fungal biotechnology for a sustainable future and to establish a research network at the TU Berlin.
Results
The Walk & Talks offered diverse perspectives on the forests and their cultural meaning. Also, during the artist residencies, Schubert studied the effects of sound on fungal growth and Peluso did research on new biomaterials on the symbiotic basis of algae and fungi. The creative works are a result of a close collaboration with both departments of TU Berlin’s Institute of Biotechnology. The final exhibition presented new results from the laboratories of the Institute of Biotechnology at TU Berlin.
Mushrooms are used in biotechnology as cell factories to produce antibiotics, immunosuppressants, cholesterol-lowering drugs, antimalarials, insulin, prebiotics, pigments, organic acids, enzymes, polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamins and more. The fungal biotechnology of the 20th century managed to establish itself as an essential platform technology for innumerable branches of industry and thus decisively shapes our daily life and our lifestyle in an invisible way.
At the moment, fungal biotechnology is undergoing a disruptive innovation process, which we want to co-design with citizen scientists in a sustainable manner. Mushrooms, which are produced based on renewable vegetable raw materials in the biotechnological process, are to be converted, with far-reaching consequences, into packaging materials, building materials, and even leather.
With the expertise of applied and molecular microbiology in the field of fungal biotechnology (Prof. Meyer), bioprocess development (Prof. Neubauer) and art and science communication (Art Laboratory Berlin) the aim of the project is also to establish a new, innovative and interdisciplinary field of research at the TU Berlin, which dares right from the beginning to build a bridge in the growing Citizen Science Community in order to integrate their expertise at an early stage.
Sources
Art Laboratory Berlin. 2020. Mind the Fungi. [online] Available at: https://artlaboratory-berlin.org/publications/mind-the-fungi-book/ [Accessed 18 March 2022].
Meyer, V. and Rapp, R. (Ed.), 2020. Mind the fungi. Berlin: TU Berlin University Press. Available at: https://artlaboratory-berlin.org/publications/mind-the-fungi-book/ [Accessed 18 March 2022].