An exhibition designed specifically for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is called Underground Composition. The work examines the frequently disregarded sensory aspects of fungal life and focuses on three different fungal species: the oyster mushroom, the chicken of the woods mushroom, and the pink oyster mushroom. The display reveals a secret layer of biological communication by converting each organism's electrochemical activity into auditory sound, based on experimental studies on bioelectrical signaling in fungi.
Three separate domes, each devoted to a different species, make up the spatial design. The mushrooms' sonified electrical patterns are accompanied by synchronized visual projections that are projected onto the domes' interior surfaces within these confined spaces. Visitors are encouraged to interact with mushrooms not just as biological specimens but also as dynamic, expressive systems through this immersive, multisensory experience created by the merging of sound and vision. Underground Composition aims to change how the public views fungi and their place in larger environmental networks by emphasizing the nexus of art, science, and ecology.
