Open Air Gentle Disco

Gentle Disco

Last year, artist Arne Hendriks started building pigeon towers with mycelium blocks at Mediamatic. He has been researching several techniques of building with the living material. One thing he discovered is that the blocks need to be pressed. Since March we have been experimenting with the method of dancing on top of the blocks in order to press them. It turns out that this is one of the most effective ways to prep the material, and besides that, it is just a lot of fun to dance on the warm and soft mycelium! During Dutch Design Week, Arne will be building pigeon towers at Strijp-S in Eindhoven and, of course, he will need us to dance there too. Get ready to show your moves on the mycelium dance floor at Ketelhuisplein!

Pigeon Towers

Arne builds pigeon towers with mycelium. These structures are an ongoing experiment to build with living mycelium waste from oyster mushroom farms. The project investigates questions such as: Can we build structures to house feral pigeons? What is the best design to build a tower with mycelium? And how long does it take for the bricks to grow together? Through experimenting with different shapes, and building structures, we see how the material responds, and if we can build a comfy living space for pigeons (or other animals?)