ELEONORE summer residency 2017, Linz, Austria

JULY 1 –SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

Mycelium Network Society is an underground network imagination powered by fungus, spores, culture, kitchen, radio, transmission, installations, workshops and performances.Mycelium Network Society, a brand new network initiative situatedin a post-internet mudland, diverts the pursuit of magic mushroom, from a state of hyper-hallucination to collective fungal consciousness, and investigates the fungi culture, its network capacity to communicate and process information.Mushroom as a commodity, a medium, an element, commands its own domain in human-disturbed forests. Sprouting across the moisture of rich soils, expanding its colonies, sharing informations, networking co-habitants, mycelium is ordained by Paul Stamets “the neurological network of nature”. In this post-digital, post-media, post-internet, post-enlightenment phase of current-day investigation into cultural practices, we seek out mycelium to lead us out of the ruins, to construct political tactics, to salvage economic meltdown. Ultimately at nature’s mercy, we artists/cultural producers strive to convene a nature’s network merging our research in technology, biology and ecology, persisting inconstant molecular communication a la mycelium mode.

This year, Stadtwerkstatt/infolab, in association with Zavod Kersnikova/Kapelica gallery in Ljubljana and CycleX in Andes, New York,
launches Mycelium Network Society as part of Ecologies excursionat transmediale2017. As part of Stadtwerkstatts initiatives that focus on free/open culture and information technology, Station Messschiff Eleonore,oncea survey vessel, now docked by Danube harbor, is powered by solar energy, equipped with radio components and modified to host artists in residency. This summer, the Eleonore summer residency investigates the theme of Mycelium Network Society and calls for artists who works with mycelium, mushrooms, fungus and culture in a networked, network-able construct. We seek residency proposals that expand from routing the mycelium underground to scheming political insurgency and tactical intervention.

Eleonore artist in residency is a Stadtwerkstatts project. The Mycelium Network Society Eleonore residency projects will be presented as part of STWST48x3, the 3rd year of 48 hour non-stop extravaganza hosted by Stadtwerkstatt and held in association with Ars Electronica in early September.