Mind the Fungi - Walk and Talk #2

17 November, 2018. The second public event of 'Mind the Fungi', a two-year collaborative project between the Technische Universität Berlin and Art Laboratory Berlin exploring the potential of sustainable biomaterials from fungi. Artist Theresa Schubert led the event offering diverse perspectives on the forest and its cultural meaning. Then, together with biotechnologists from the Institute for Biotechnology | TU Berlin she guided us through Tegeler Forst (Berlin) in search of tree mushrooms and lichens. Afterwards at the Tu Berlin Bertram Schmidt and Carsten Pohl of the Dept of Applied and Molecular Microbiology, and Fathemeh Nejati of the Dept of Bioprocess Engineering, showed participants how to preserve the samples for further study. Participants cut and cleaned samples (in a bath of peroxide and in antibiotics) and inoculated Petri dishes with samples for cultivation. Samples taken will form part of a two-year research project combining cutting edge biological research, citizen science and artistic research.

At Tegeler Forst, Berlin

Samples cut

Adding information (where found, where growing, what trees are growing nearby)

Photographing the sample and bag

Honey mushroom (Hallimash - Armillaria)

 Sulfur tuft (Schwefelkopf - Hypholoma)

Left: Schmutzbecherling - Bulgaria inquinans?, right: unknown

Left. Unknown; right Trametes?

Lichens from the family Cladonia. Photo by Peter Neubauer

Photo by Peter Neubauer

Photo by Peter Neubauer

At the lab of the TU Berlin, Dept for Applied and Molecular Microbiology

Sorting mushrooms

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Cutting samples

Cleansing samples in Hydrogen Peroxide to avoid contamination (back dish) before inoculating

Adding antibiotics to the cleansing

inoculating the Petri dish with mycelium

Mycelium grown on substrate from an earlier sample

Mind the Fungi is a research project of Art Laboratory Berlin and Prof. Vera Meyer and Prof. Peter Neubauer of the Institute for Biotechnology, Technische Universität Berlin.