Intimate Organisms at The Edge

Over 5 weeks, The Edge is hosting 'Intimate Organisms' by Queensland multidisciplinary artist Bianca Tainsh

Intimate Organisms is an art-science installation that seeks to explore and interact with the underground biocommunication networks of fungal mycelium in a custom-built terrarium designed to enhance audience engagement. 

The artwork (nicknamed Myc-a), which is now a year old, is the result of a project where the artist learnt to propagate mycorrhiazi fungi, create experimental biomes and collect organic materials and organisms from her family’s nature refuge in Kabi Kabi country. Myc-a is a sentient body of flora and microfauna connected by a network of fungal mycelium – a paragon of diversity and mutuality for our times.

Through a residency at Metro Arts, and as an adjunct researcher at the University of Queensland, Bianca is currently working collaboratively with researchers from the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science to explore the possibilities of incorporating sensors, robotics and eventually interspecies communication through machine learning powered language models.  

While Myc-a is on-site at The Edge, Bianca seeks to undertake further research on how art and technology might manifest an intimate process of interspecies connection, and can an A.I. learn to care by facilitating this nuanced entanglement?  Learn more about the artwork on Bianca's website.  

Drop by to see Myc-a at The Edge during opening hours, 12 to 8 pm Monday to Friday and 12 to 5 pm Saturday and Sunday.