Excerpt-Sixth-Great-Extinction by Mycelium Network

Billions of years ago, two black holes merged in a distant galaxy, warping space-time and triggering a burst of gravitational waves and exotic particle radiation. What would later be referred to as “The Big Bang”. The collision destabilized a nearby planetary system where a super-resilient life form had evolved over many millenia. Chunks of spore-laden rock were flung across interstellar space—one of these rocks was captured by a young solar system where it eventually collided with a young organism.

Well, Danny* has been on our minds lately, somewhat due to working this past Venice Film Festival Immersive as a World Hop tour guide and the cacophony and fun chaos around being an Immersive Tour Guide. Our pal, Manglebird, is the programmer in chief for the Venice Immersive World Hops, primarily on the social VR platform VRChat. VRC allows artists, creatives and Devs to create and publish worlds and experiences to the VRChat global community. From DJ-driven club scenes, deep, immersive, otherworldly environments, and extra-terrestrial realms to physics-breaking realities! You name it; it can likely be found on VRChat. So it is also likely no coincidence that Manglebird's primary avatar is the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland....just a bit demented, looking like they've spent too much tea time with the Mad Hatter. ;) VRChat psychedelia - also known as Shaders, VFX are wild, like taking psychedelics without the nausea and hangover. Anywho, Nanotopia here playing with Euclidean rhythms, sub-harmonics and the lovely Shakmat Dual Dagger filter with the System80 Jove filter. Here is our stab at some form of Psy. Enjoy! *Danny and the Camberwell Carrot from Withnail & I :) released October 18, 2023 on Bandcamp

Track from Symbiosis/\Dysbiosis: Sentience Scene One: MOTH THE GUESTS FIND THEY HAVE EMERGED FROM CHRYSALIS WITHIN A DENSE FOREST. STRANGE SOUNDS AND LOW-FREQUENCIES SURROUND THEM. A DENSE FOG FILLS THE AREA. AS THE GUESTS COME TO TERMS WITH THEIR NEW SURROUNDINGS, THEY HEAR SINGING-LIKE SOUNDS NOT TOO FAR FROM WHERE THEY STAND THAT DRAW THEIR ATTENTION TO THEIR RIGHT. FLOATING IN THE AIR IS A GIANT SILK MOTH TURNING TO FACE THE GUESTS. THE MOTH'S LARGE BLACK EYES GLEAM AS THEIR ANTLER-LIKE ANTENNAE GENTLY TURN. (surprised to see humans emerging from their chrysalis, Moth wonders aloud) "...How have YOU come to be?" Moth is still slightly confused by these visitors and their sudden appearance; Moth is curious and mumbles a bit to themselves, recognizing that the Guests are Human. MOTH "Well, you are an invasive species after all…" Moth's head tilts as they survey the situation and speak to the Humans, "We are invasive here... We are not meant for here, yet here we are. The forest needs you to SEE. The forest…. We don't have much time." A thrumming can be heard and felt by the Humans. The Moth's upper set of hands makes a tree form in the air above the humans. "You must locate the Great Tree. We can take you below. Look for sounds..." -Moth's multiple hands move in a circular pattern- "...They may appear like this..." Moth gestures -the Humans see glyphs above Moth's hands while a pleasant tone is heard. The Moth's 3rd eye begins to glow. "Look for them as they may help you... We are all connected." Pointing at the Humans with one hand while sweeping upward with another hand and pointing to the left with one of their other hands, Moth tells the Humans, "You must climb The Steps of Ganoderma to enter the Queendom to find the Mycelial Entity. She will help you see." Moth carefully studies each of the Humans, "Will you do this?"

Symbiosis/\Dysbiosis: Sentience Live performance - Nanotopia pays homage to Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and one of their favourite movies, Fantastic Planet. Imagine stepping into an old-growth forest, where your EEG data and the bioelectrical activity of living Mycelium influence the world around you. Symbiosis-Dysbiosis: Sentience is a groundbreaking immersive XR installation in which participants embark on a quest to connect with the Mycelial Entity at the heart of the interconnected forest. It offers a unique perspective on the delicate balance between humans and the non-human organisms around us. Embark on an interactive journey where your choices determine the environment's response. Your decisions can lead to either symbiosis, fostering evolution and new awareness, or dysbiosis, resulting in a cascade of adverse outcomes. This dynamic experience places you at the heart of a living, breathing ecosystem, a powerful reminder that everything is interconnected and that your actions matter. Symbiosis/Dysbiosis: Sentience invites audiences to slow down and experience an interconnected, psychedelic forest adventure through whimsical storytelling, live actors, and an evolving soundscape. It reminds us that the future depends on our ability to recognize our connection to the non-human world. Combining real-time fungal biodata streams with EEG data from Guests, haptic sensations, and scent emitters triggered by the living fungi create an environment where participants feel, perceive, and interact with the microscopic connections formed within us, on us, and around us. Within the expanded reality installation, Nanotopia creates an evolving Quadraphonic and 4D soundscape with living Mycelium that is directly connected to a custom synthesizer and bio-electrically connected to the virtual environment. Actors, embodying the spirits of the forest, will guide you through this immersive experience, making you feel like an integral part of the narrative. Live performance took place for Earth Modular Society https://youtu.be/E0iLBkuhH-s?si=n2RD3fr7xnAhmDL0 Full album coming 2025!

A start into Jamuary22 trying out a 3 patch challenge from Comparative Irrelevance. Maths/STØ/Rings only here we do not use the STØ (bc we do not own one) in its place we used the VCO side of a Maneco Labs Grone Drone.. with a short visit from a Mother 32. Things grow dark fairly quickly, this is the way of the Grone! Letting go of 2021 heading into the future.. output just as time turned.

Mycelia premiered as the opening performance for A MAZE. / Berlin festival 2021 in VRChat. A meta-immersive living mycelium musical entanglement. Nanotopia is known for hooking up fungi with electrodes and circuitry to record its various biodata and translating this biodata (often in real-time) through synthesisers both analog and digital. In 2020 Tosca Terán was an invited participant in the New Nature Climate Science Exchange hosted by the Goethe-Institute, curated by Samara Chadwick. Through this exchange with other like-minded artists, technologists and scientists Tosca presented a proposal towards bringing living fungi biodata into a VR environment, creating a macroscopic experience of human and nonhuman entanglements within a forest environment. Working project title: Symbiosis/\Dysbiosis. After the presentations Tosca and digital technologist Sara Lisa Vogl connected and later began work on the Symbiosis/\Dysbiosis project. Bringing in Neuroscientist/coder Brendan Lehman, Photogrammetric/new media artist Allison Moore, VR world builder Jason Stapleton, Sound designer Penelope Walcott, AR collaborator Peter Henderson, and early involved Arduino robot builder Lorena Salomé. Symbiosis/\Dysbiosis is generously funded by the Goethe-Institute Montreal, Canada Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council with sponsorship from bHaptics and ARTIVIVE. Tosca and Sara Lisa thought it would be fun to participate in the A MAZE. / Berlin festival but knew the Sym/Dys project was far too large not to mention myriad COVID19 restrictions plus, looking at VRChat as a platform et viola! a Mycelia mood board branched out. Sara Lisa was introduced to the Meta Crew South Africa while working for SXSW and felt that this amazing group of creators might be interested in working on a Mycelia world - and they were!! Concept for Mycelia was, of course, to bring living mycelium bio-sonification into VRChat with reactive audio aspects via a live human & nonhuman electronic music performance. Sara Lisa had been learning how to work with a Sports Pole in VR and thought she could add to the performance with an interpretive full-body tracked dance as spores above Tosca's avatar. Living mycelium and human performances have taken place for A MAZE. / Berlin The Venice Film Festival 2021- VR Expanded and the Raindance Film Festival where Mycelia won the Spirit of the Festival award. nanotopia will be releasing the Mycelia performances soon. Here is a preview! xoxox Happy New Year 2022!

Forest UnderSound is an invitation to consider the sentience of fungi. Sentience is the ability to perceive one’s environment, and experience sensations such as pain and suffering, or pleasure and comfort. Many countries acknowledge animal sentience, and animal’s ability to experience pain, fear, distress, hunger, and thirst, in their laws, which are designed to protect animals from such suffering. In 1997, the European Union agreed to recognize animals as sentient beings under European law. Animals and fungi share a common ancestor and branched away from plants at some point aproximately 1.1 billion years ago. It was only later that animals and fungi separated on the genealogical tree of life, making fungi more closely related to humans than plants. For Forest UnderSound, mycelium from Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi/Lingzhi) and Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushrooms), along with mycorrhizal fungi growing and connecting within the roots of various plants has been cultivated. Both the plant roots and mycelium have electrodes connected to them that send biodata into purpose-built circuits, which detect micro-fluctuations in conductivity between 1,000-100,000 of a second. This biodata is then translated in realtime to control analog and digital synthesizers. Empirically, when fully connected and music is being generated, Mycelium consistently generates periodic patterns that are both enigmatic but also very musical. For reasons that I do not fully understand, Mycelium reacts to the proximity of some people more than others. Growing more frenetic or more harmonic or completely silent, when humans are present. For the first iteration of Forest UnderSound fungi and plants will be allowed to grow over approximately 7 months, creating a real-time fungi forest soundscape. The soundscape will change over the seasons as the fungi and plants grow. During the 2021 Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall this soundscape will be recorded. Recordings take place on each of the 4 equinoxes. ​ With support from: The Ontario Arts Council • A Space Gallery, Toronto • The Museum, Kitchener Ontario

Finally hooked up a Mother. After chatting with Aga (Ferment Radio) I wondered why I hadn't tried this yet. I mean, really. Prior to setting the electrode probes into the SCOBY I did a little test with Apple cider vinegar and another with a bit of water just to see if the activity would be the same or similar- it was not. Available for download, remix, etc.

Back in August 2020 I started cultivating Pleurotus djamor towards a presentation for the Remote Realities residency awarded to myself and technologist/collaborator Sara Lisa Vogl (regarding Symbiosis/Dysbiosis). After the presentation I gently placed the Pink oyster mushrooms aside. Last week, while exiting my music/sound making studio I noticed "Pinkie" and !! there was this beautiful mass of pink oysters emerging out of its grow bag. After apologising profusely I brought Pinkie back into the music studio and started recording. The Electrodes had been left within the mycelium, which is what I usually do. Here are the results of that music session. Hope you enjoy!

Created during COVID self-isolation. Moon in Cancer was recorded during our August 15th live stream. Check it out over on https://nanotopia.bandcamp.com Thanks for listening!