Fungal Timepiece

Welcome to the fungal timepiece, an installation which invites you to step into the world of fungi for a few moments.

What normally takes place in the soil and within the trees is brought into full view in the fungal timepiece. Instead of soil, the fungi here are grown here on agar agar jelly with added nutrients needed for the fungi to feed on. Using the moveable microscope, the fungi can be easily observed in a way which is non-threatening to our cultural sensitivities around fungi – an often neglected but vitally important kingdom of life. Fungal Timepiece is a project to re-familiarise humans with fungi and their life cycles.

Fungi are a non human species whose growth is quick enough to be easily observed from day to day by humans. Their entire life cycle can play out in front of us. An entirely natural time cycle, as opposed to our contructed idea of time. A reminder of just how constructed our view of time is and thus could just as easily be changed and re-constructed into another view in the future.

A selection of species of living fungal mycelium (the roots of fungi) is placed on the agar in the box to represent a scene which could play out hidden within soil or within the wood of the trees. The pieces of living mycelium were taken from existing, living samples which were grown in a lab and chosen for their variety of different apprearances and growth characteristics.