Honey Fungus is a sci-fi Virtual Reality installation that invites audiences to expand their sensory connection to the greater ecosystem. A sentient ecological presence—manifested as an omnipresent mycelial entity—guides participants on a journey through an entangled ecology.
Through a series of interactive vignettes inspired by the fungal reproductive cycle, users are invited to shape and transform the virtual environment. As they progress, they encounter spores that speak in poetic passages generated by AI, trained on a unique blend of Smithsonian field research and amateur erotica. In these spaces, the scientific merges with the sensual, unveiling the earth’s queer erotic potential and opening new possibilities for ecological stewardship and mutual care between human and non-human life.
This VR world embraces the idea that each of us possesses more than a singular, isolated body. As scholar Daisy Hildyard suggests, we have a 'second body'—one that exists through our interconnectedness with the world around us.
Completed October 2024
Exhibited as Work In Progress:
Bolivar Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky
Hesse Flatow, Expo Chicago
Myclological Film Festival, SVA Theatre, New York
GBA, Brooklyn
Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Urban Soils Institute, LMCC Arts Center, Governor’s Island, New York
RealMix 2022, Hyphen Hub, Colombia
Moss Arts Center, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
NEW INC, NewLab, Brooklyn
VISUAL Carlow, Ireland
Producer
Alex Darby, Hybrid.Studio
VR Production
Pariah Interactive
Audio
Reading: Helga Hansen Logan
Sound Design: Frank Sweeney
Vocals: Anna Roberts-Gevalt
Mixing Engineer: Daniel NeumannContributing Writer: Sue Huang
Supported by
The Arts Council of Ireland / An Chomhairle Ealaíon
Stevens Institute
Science Sandbox - Simons Foundation
NEW INC - New Museum
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
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Through a series of interactive vignettes inspired by the fungal reproductive cycle, users are invited to shape and transform the virtual environment. As they progress, they encounter spores that speak in poetic passages generated by AI, trained on a unique blend of Smithsonian field research and amateur erotica. In these spaces, the scientific merges with the sensual, unveiling the earth’s queer erotic potential and opening new possibilities for ecological stewardship and mutual care between human and non-human life.
This VR world embraces the idea that each of us possesses more than a singular, isolated body. As scholar Daisy Hildyard suggests, we have a 'second body'—one that exists through our interconnectedness with the world around us.
Completed October 2024
Exhibited as Work In Progress:
Bolivar Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky
Hesse Flatow, Expo Chicago
Myclological Film Festival, SVA Theatre, New York
GBA, Brooklyn
Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Urban Soils Institute, LMCC Arts Center, Governor’s Island, New York
RealMix 2022, Hyphen Hub, Colombia
Moss Arts Center, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
NEW INC, NewLab, Brooklyn
VISUAL Carlow, Ireland
Producer
Alex Darby, Hybrid.Studio
VR Production
Pariah Interactive
Audio
Reading: Helga Hansen Logan
Sound Design: Frank Sweeney
Vocals: Anna Roberts-Gevalt
Mixing Engineer: Daniel NeumannContributing Writer: Sue Huang
Supported by
The Arts Council of Ireland / An Chomhairle Ealaíon
Stevens Institute
Science Sandbox - Simons Foundation
NEW INC - New Museum
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
2D Extract of VR Experience
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Cyborg Ecologies
Article
2024
In Focus: CGI / Digital Art - Visual Artists’ News Sheet
“ Traditionally, my creative process involved
collaboration with actors and non-actors, drawing on methods from filmmaking and theater that were collectively devised. However, the constraints imposed by the COVID-19 lockdown forced a shift in my practice. Unable to engage in physical collaborations, I turned to 3D software to simulate my production model. This transition led me to explore artificial intelligence, virtual reality, motion capture, and digital avatars—emerging technologies that offered new dimensions for my work ...”
Comissioned by Visual Artist Ireland
Read Full Article
Print Version .pdf
“ Traditionally, my creative process involved
collaboration with actors and non-actors, drawing on methods from filmmaking and theater that were collectively devised. However, the constraints imposed by the COVID-19 lockdown forced a shift in my practice. Unable to engage in physical collaborations, I turned to 3D software to simulate my production model. This transition led me to explore artificial intelligence, virtual reality, motion capture, and digital avatars—emerging technologies that offered new dimensions for my work ...”
Comissioned by Visual Artist Ireland
Read Full Article
Print Version .pdf
HONEY FUNGUS SPECIMENS comprises nine digital C-prints (each a single edition).
Each specimen is an inflated body processed via 3D software and placed in a virtual glass specimen box. These fungal avatars are captured mid-dance, contorting to their unique rhythms.
The mycelium network's ecosystem is at the core of Honey Fungus, which nourishes, feeds, mates protects and spreads like a living internet. As viewers explore the underworld of spores and their soundscape, they encounter fungal specimens moving through a viscous liquid. These sensual specimens are an AI-generated amalgamation of erotica and exotic fungi, resulting in a colourful and complex hybrid body that is part human, part mushroom.
Made in collaboration with Sue Huang.
Available through GBA.family
Watch Video
Exhibition
Guilty By Association, Brooklyn
Each specimen is an inflated body processed via 3D software and placed in a virtual glass specimen box. These fungal avatars are captured mid-dance, contorting to their unique rhythms.
The mycelium network's ecosystem is at the core of Honey Fungus, which nourishes, feeds, mates protects and spreads like a living internet. As viewers explore the underworld of spores and their soundscape, they encounter fungal specimens moving through a viscous liquid. These sensual specimens are an AI-generated amalgamation of erotica and exotic fungi, resulting in a colourful and complex hybrid body that is part human, part mushroom.
Made in collaboration with Sue Huang.
Available through GBA.family
Watch Video
Exhibition
Guilty By Association, Brooklyn
A Social VR interpretation of Honey Fungus created by RealMix 0.2 - Art in Escadão.
This is a virtual event of the District Institute of the Arts - Idartes organized by its Line of Art, Science and Technology and by the Planetarium of Bogotá, which aims to recognize and encourage technological creation and experimentation through projects of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Realities (MX).
Supported by Hyphen-Hub, Newrona, Planetarium of Bogotá, Idartes.
Watch Walkthrough
This is a virtual event of the District Institute of the Arts - Idartes organized by its Line of Art, Science and Technology and by the Planetarium of Bogotá, which aims to recognize and encourage technological creation and experimentation through projects of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Realities (MX).
Supported by Hyphen-Hub, Newrona, Planetarium of Bogotá, Idartes.
Watch Walkthrough
Screen capture of WebVR.
Unfathomable Intimacies
Essay
2020
Every egg a person carries forms inside their ovaries while they are still in the womb of their mother. In that way, my mother was once inside my great-grandmother’s womb, and I spent time in the womb of my grandmother. My grandmother is fast asleep right now, in the creaking bed that she was born in. Her giant black collie dog is snoring on the floor beside her....
This text forms the basis of Honey Fungus and Tongue the Sun
Full Text
This text forms the basis of Honey Fungus and Tongue the Sun
Full Text
