FUNGI: Anarchist DesignersFUNGI: Anarchist Designers

In it, the fungi Amanita, Nidula and Dactilella explain how they, as designers, take the lead in an ongoing design process that exists by virtue of exchange with other species. Creativity does not exist in isolation, but rather as the result of what the exhibition’s curators call ‘social reproduction.’

In this constant, dynamic interplay, form is equally unfixed – no matter how hard we humans try to make our designs permanent using materials such as concrete or plastic. Everything that people create stems from relationships and, in turn, creates new relationships with other species. On behalf of our non-human neighbours, Tsing and Zhou suggest: “You might start by considering how the forms you make affect the beings around them.”

Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing is an anthropologist who has conducted extensive fieldwork on the ecological and economic roles of fungi, as well as the intricate connections between humans and non-humans. Feifei Zhou is an architect and artist whose work investigates the ecological and social impact of the built environment on both local and planetary scales. Tsing and Zhou are the curators of the exhibition FUNGI: Anarchist Designers.

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.