Design Studio
Throughout this year, I have consistently worked with mycelium: exploring it as a material, organism, and narrative tool. My approach has been comparative, observing mycelium across different contexts: personal, collective, community-based, pedagogical, and experimental. This allowed me to see how the same system behaves, transforms, and communicates differently depending on its entanglements.
My practice drifts between scientific method and sensory storytelling, between control and openness, always responding to how the material evolves. I don’t aim to solve problems, but to stay with the complexity, letting the material lead the way.
Looking ahead, I want to explore how mycelium might bind or neutralize red mud’s toxicity, as a speculative form of bioremediation. I’m also interested in developing composite materials that express coexistence, and in turning the installation into a distributed, participatory experience, where the audience completes the system through interaction.
Alternative present
Present Continuities
Materials like mycelium and industrial residues (such as red mud) are treated as separate, inert entities: mycelium as a raw material for novelty design, and red mud as toxic waste to be discarded or contained. This separation reflects a broader system where biological and industrial realms coexist but rarely interact meaningfully. Design often focuses on human-centered solutions, overlooking the agency of non-human matter and the complex entanglements between ecosystems and industry.
Alternative Presents
Materials like mycelium and red mud become collaborators in a shared material dialogue, where waste is not merely discarded but engaged as an active partner in transformation. New design models embrace coexistence and care between human and non-human actors, blurring boundaries between biology and industry. Through experimental and speculative design, materials tell stories of regeneration, healing, and interdependence, creating spaces where toxicity is not erased but woven into meaningful futures. This alternative present shifts design from control to responsiveness, fostering relationships across species and matter.
Scalability
Storytelling
Industrial waste like red mud, a toxic byproduct of aluminum production, often remains a problem: stored, ignored, or buried. But what if this waste could become part of a new material conversation? This project explores the possibility that mycelium, a fungal network capable of self-assembling, could use red mud as a substrate to grow and transform it.
The process is experimental: by mixing mycelium with different ratios of red mud, we observe how living systems respond to contaminated environments. Instead of trying to control or predict the outcomes, the project listens to how materials interact, allowing the process to guide the results. This approach challenges traditional ideas about waste as useless or harmful, reframing it as a potential source of regeneration.
Beyond material experiments, the project creates a dialogue between human and non-human agents, blending design with biology. It emphasizes collaboration, openness, and adaptation rather than mastery or control. This relational approach opens new paths for sustainable materials, aiming to transform industrial leftovers into resources for bioremediation and composite materials.
The work is open and accessible, inviting others to join the conversation, experiment, and learn. By sharing knowledge transparently, it hopes to foster a future where waste is seen not as an end, but as an opportunity:one that requires collective care and creative collaboration.
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