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Mushrooms communicate in ways scientists are only beginning to understand. Recent research has shown that fungi pass information via vast networks of cells and spores, seemingly helping to regulate whole ecosystems in what has been called "natural neural networks"—including expansive underground “Wood Wide Webs” of multi-species communication across kilometers of forests.
The artwork of Shu Lea Cheang literally refers to the behavior of mycological material at times, but her working method could also be compared to rhizomatic fungal networking. The artist, born in Taiwan and based in Paris, has for decades been creating collaborative projects that bring together other artists, institutions, and the public into complex networks of interaction that cannot be codified according to entrenched systems of communication or exchange.
At transmediale 2017 Cheang presented one of her newer collaborative ventures, the Mycelium Network Society, a rotating ensemble and artist residency for those working with—and like—fungi. Jenna Sutela, a Berlin-based Finnish artist whose work harnesses the computational power of fermentation and other "natural computers," interviewed Cheang in an equally expansive conversation.