Image courtesy of Ayodamola Okunseinde
What can slime mold teach us about issues of migration and displacement?
Slime mold is a bright, vivid, living monoculture. Due to its ability to grow in the pattern of nodes and branches, technologists have been using it as a tool and medium to represent a wide array of efficient systems, from the functionality of the Internet to the mapping of transit systems in various cities. Once mistakenly classified as a part of the fungi animal kingdom, this fascinating “othered” organism has the remarkable capacity to both aggregate into a multicellular structure as well as live freely as single cells.
The workshop will cover the wonders of slime mold, exploring its ability to solve puzzles and model behavior for issues of displacement, migration, equitable societies and probe new potentials for artists to navigate and resist borders. Participants will learn how to inoculate, cultivate, and care for their slime mold. Using a SlimeSensor, a small dome-shaped terrarium embedded with the technical ability to communicate via a raspberry pi micro-computer, participants will create a hospitable ecosystem for your slime to flourish. After the workshop is finished, participants can check in on the growth of their slime mould via a website – the mold automatically updates images of it's own progress via contact switches, creating a collaborative archive.
The workshop will be taught by Ayodamola Okunseinde, Ashley Lewis, and Ella Hillström in collaboration with SlimeTechLab. It is organized by the Anti-Customs Enforcement (ACE) Collective as a part of their CultureHub Residency. Registration is limited to 10 participants. Children under 12 are welcome to participate with a parent/caregiver. Young artists between the ages of 14-20 are eligible for a scholarship. To express your interest, please email colab@culturehub.org.
Saturday, November 23, 2019
12–3pm
$35