FUNGI: Anarchist Designers
In his manifesto, Klaas Kuitenbrouwer, a senior researcher at the Nieuwe Instituut and initiator of the Zoöp model, describes how decay is essential for a regenerative culture and economy.
Humans are a relatively new species in the life cycle of our planet. We still have to learn to break free from the obsession with growth prescribed by our current economic system. Modernist progressive thinking has made us slaves to a concept of growth that has nothing to do with the maturation, decline, death and decomposition that always accompany ‘growth’ in natural processes.
Kuitenbrouwer counters this limited interpretation of economics with the concept of ‘zoönomics.’ He advocates for a system in which death and destruction are an integral part of a healthy and flourishing ecosystem, rather than obstacles to overcome in the pursuit endless growth. Fungi, he concludes, are the bankers and moneychangers of the zoönomic bank because they extract the inherent value from the remnants and remains that form the seed capital of new life cycles.
“ If a zoönomy has banks, then the fungi are the bankers and currency changers, transforming the generous detritus of the living into pluriversal, life-enabling potential. ”
Klaas Kuitenbrouwer
Klaas Kuitenbrouwer is the head of the Zoönomic Institute, and senior researcher in regenerative practices at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. His work is drawn to the tensions between different knowledge practices — technological, artistic, legal, scientific, and more-than-human.
Other manifestos
Throughout FUNGI: Anarchist Designers, the case for an alternative worldview emerges. Rather than striving for control, humans should take inspiration from the cross-species, more-than-human alliances that fungi exemplify. In their manifestos, the experts invited by curators Anna Tsing and Feifei Zhou explore this shift in mentality. You can download all of the manifestos in full via the collection page on this website.