GHOSTSHROOM / GRZYBODUCHA (Mycocaleum Apophenia L.)

2024, 6-channel sound installation, crocheted sculptures, short story

The sound installation is based on the audio repository of Crocoteka’s archive (the living archive of Polish theatre director and visual artist Tadeusz Kantor) and was curated by Wiktor Bury.

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In August 2024, a mysterious mycelium species was discovered in Cricoteka's archives. It was most likely attracted by noises from old cassette recordings, or the murmurs of machinery remembered through the walls of the former power plant. It was named Ghostshroom (Latin: Mycocaleum Apophenia L.) because of the lace-like fruiting bodies that bloomed on the walls. To some, they resembled ghosts or ears. The mycelium decomposed the audio resources into individual words and phrases. Trackers of paranormal phenomena concluded that these mushrooms were mediums, capable of foretelling the future or contacting the dead. After all, the archives are full of ghosts. It has been observed that when the spores are released, the fruiting bodies make sounds. The human mind eagerly hears familiar human speech in the noises and mutterings (cf. the Rorschach sound effect) and searches for familiar patterns in the chaos and random stimulus (cf. sonic pareidolia). This mushrooming polyphony began to fascinate ghost seekers, who compared it to the phenomenon of electronic voice (EVP), or prophecies contained in scraps of words scattered over the airwaves and picked up by crafted radios (cf. ghost box). Still, others referred to the research of Eleanor Sidgwick and T. C. Lethbridge's research on stone tapes (Stone Tape Theory) and claimed that the mycelium was able to recreate and soundtrack the past emotions with which the archive room was saturated.

Who knows? Maybe it's worth putting your ear to the ear?

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