Examining mushrooms

Photo: Contributed

Join Montreal artist Amélie Brindamour in Vernon later this month to explore what parallels exist between the information and resource circuit of fungi and plants, and our own contemporary digital communication systems.

Brindamour explores various issues related to the natural and urban environment through place-specific projects including temporary actions, participatory performances, eat-art and photography.

Her current project, In Oscillation, intends on materializing visually the symbiotic and intelligent systems between trees and fungi referred to as the mycorhizal network.

Brindamour joined in on multiple hikes around the Okanagan Valley and many mushrooms were picked, then moulded and cast in transparent resin with an LED light encased inside.

Experimentations were made to connect those lights to a battery-powered electric circuit to turn them on, and for them to act as a simple synthesizer producing sounds, which can be activated by touch.

A prototype is being created that represents a small part of the installation, as well as a model of the whole circuit and how it would look in an exhibition space.

The electronic circuit will be completed in September at the artist-run-centre Avatar in Quebec City, in order to show it publicly in 2019.

The artist would like to thank the Vernon Outdoors Club, the North Okanagan Naturalist Club, and other Vernon residents for welcoming her in their hikes and sharing their knowledge of mushrooms and the region.

The event will take place at Allan Brooks Nature from Aug. 28 at 9 a.m. to Aug. 31.