The Natural History and Science Museum of the University of Porto houses a collection of 45 models of fungi in papier-mâché from the 19th-century, which were used at the university until 2015 as didactic models. For the first time, the materials and techniques used in the production of a Boletus edulis model were studied (vernacular name: cep, porcini). These sculptures, made to life-size scale, are painted in colors similar to those of the represented species (white, brown, and light brown). They are fixed to a rectangular base, which is painted black, and to which moss has been pasted. To fully characterize each color, at the molecular level, a multi-analytical approach was used, combining energy-dispersive x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (micro-XRF) with fingerprinting techniques of Raman microscopy (microRaman and handheld Raman) spectroscopy and microFourier transform infrared spectroscopy (microFTIR). The papier-mâché was prepared with a groundwood paper to which kaolin and a ...

The need to improve the aesthetic condition of our industrial products, their marketing and use compels us to think, first of all, about those who design the object and the ambiance in which that object will function; then, about those who ensure the execution of the object and its optimal operating conditions and, last, about those who execute the object and make the product's entire ambiance. In the last decades, emphasis was placed on those who consume the product. The relation between producer and consumer becomes a relation which has to be seen with maximum of attention, when we intend to talk about design. We cannot fail to notice that both the condition of the producer and that of the consumer have a certain dynamics, are subject to changes and fluctuations which are impossible to neglect.

With the production of artifacts with biological systems with generative potential, where nature’s randomness and physiological processes have an important role in the definition of form, we understand that artifacts do not only need to attend to the needs and desires of their users, but also have the capacity to foster emotional connections that arise from their nurturing and from an understanding of their morphogenesis, from the proximity and time required for their growth and development. These artifacts will only develop into final products if the system is understood and nourished by their users. Their end results are singular and unique, with aesthetic qualities that arise from the understanding of the artifacts’ growth constraints and the bonds that are created with them. The traditional quality canons of mass produced goods are challenged, as the resulting artifacts will not get final shapes that are both polished and free of imperfections, but that are inconstant, gnarly and sinuous. Other aspects, such as production time and the dedication that the systems require from their user are motive to question the connections that will arise between users and these artifacts. We intend to contribute to the discussion about new production models that may be alternatives to mass production in specific uses. With these systems we seek to catalyze greater empathy between objects and their users, to understand which aesthetic qualities emerge and how their specific characteristics are interpreted. Geometrically simple experimental models with ants, bees and mycelia (the vegetative part of a fungus, consisting of a network of fine white filaments), have been developed to better understand the conjectural elements of these systems. In these, the matrices and the system are designed but the final results are reliant on the choices of those who manipulate them and by the variables of the biological actuators. We intend to make our findings available, allowing others to replicate our experiments in order to obtain a broader understanding of reactions on the interaction with the systems and the perceived quality of the final artifacts. To better understand how individuals respond to this type of objects, we are developing small series of artifacts, made with mycelia, in an embryonic stage. These will be distributed to users that will be asked to nurture them into final objects; in this process each user will be asked to nurture his artifact into a final object, where all options will be of their choice, from the sunlight exposure to the interruption of growth. Each user will be asked to register the daily evolution of their artifact and to describe their feelings towards it.

This review reflects several artists and their artistic research in the field of hybrid art, bio art, or science art, working with Fungi as both subject matter and medium. The work of Saša Spačal, Tarsh Bates and Theresa Schubert is not representational in the manner of traditional fine art, but works rather through performative, multidisciplinary and research-based strategies to produce artwork through fungal material as such. My research results are based on the series "Nonhuman subjectivities" and "Nonhuman agents" that Christian de Lutz and I conceived and realized at Art Laboratory Berlin (2016-18) in various formats-exhibitions, workshops, lectures and a conference. The work of Saša Spačal and her colleagues involves creating interactive situations of symbiosis between the fungal and the human. An example of this is Myconnect, in which a biofeedback loop is related between the human participant and Oyster mushroom mycelia through a special encounter, which is mediated by non-linguistic forms of awareness and exchange-sonic, electronic and metabolic. Tarsh Bates' work with Candida albicans and Candida parapsilosis refers to a complex and intimate relation between the human and yeasts that form part of the human microbiome. Bates considers the relationship between humans and yeast as "CandidaHomo Ecologies" and sees both partners as equals. She explores this relationship through her work The Surface dynamics of adhesion, examines it from historical and metabolic levels through an installation that includes the live yeast growing on agar mixed with the artist's own blood. Theresa Schubert's installations and site-specific interventions treat living organisms, especially Fungi, as collaborators and co-creators. Her work Growing Geometries-Tattooing Mushrooms follows the morphological development of fungal fruiting bodies through the intervention of a tattoo. Her performative forest walks, especially the Forestal Psyche and also new actions for the "Mind the Fungi" project, engage the public in an intimate and multi sensory encounter with Fungi and their surrounding environment.

By analysing the relationship between drawing and actual object, it is observed that the design of glass artefacts depends on the features of the material itself, on the processing techniques and their limits. More generally, therefore, we can say that form is the result of forces located inside the matter, as it also happens in the generation of a living organism. For this reason the discourse on the creation and graphic representation of these objects can be approached from the point of view of biomorphism, a feature that can be found in similar artefacts on several levels: from the figurativity of the glass animals to the almost abstract shape obtained from the self-organising matter through its intrinsic forces. It is precisely in the creations with a higher degree of abstraction that we observe the same "biomorphic" feature found in some of the major scientific and artistic studies since the 1950s, although the tradition of blown glass, with its particular processing techniques, is preserved. ISBN 978-88-99586-07-2

Angled and forked wood – a desired material until 19th century, was swept away by industrialization and its standardization of processes and materials. Contemporary information technology has the potential for the capturing and recognition of individual geometries through laser scanning and computation and subsequently design and bespoke CNC fabrication. The question whether this allows for a new approach to the uniqueness that is offered to us by nature is discussed in a series of workshops and projects, which explore the performative potential of naturally grown materials.

The question whether contemporary information technology with its potential for individual fabrication allows for a new approach to the uniqueness that is offered to us by nature was discussed within a 8-day workshop. 19 students of KADK explored the performative potential of naturally angled and forked wood – a desired material until 19th century, but swept away by industrialization and its standardization of processes and materials.