Foray – Mushroom Rendezvous

Fungi appear in all manner of guises from mushrooms to puffballs, to corals, to jellies and even kookier forms.

As we wander through the diverse habitat types of the Coastal Forest Lodge bushland, we’ll explore and examine a great range of fungi.

Participants will learn the basics of finding and identifying fungi and their associations with plants and animals.

Don’t forget to bring along your camera or magnifying glass if you have one.

This event is sponsored by Torquay and District Landcare.

Workshop – The Third F

Fauna and flora are well recognised as part of biodiversity and conservation, but the Third F – the Fungi – are finally receiving more attention. In this workshop you’ll learn about the vital role of fungi in soil, plant and human health.

In this workshop we’ll use fungi as our starting point to learn about the vital architecture they provide in soils and the alliances they form with plants and animals. We’ll discover, up close, how fungi recycle vital nutrients, completing the cycle of life.

Following an interactive indoor identification session around a specimen table we’ll head to the field to the hunt for fungi and their kin. You’ll learn to recognise not just a variety of fungi but the vital clues that help us understand forest histories and health.

The forest is an archive of histories. The interactions of organisms are recorded and mapped in tracks and traces. But how do we read them? And what do they tell us about soil and forest health?

This event is sponsored by Torquay and District Landcare.

The Fungal Mesh

Beneath the soil, a dynamic mesh of connectivities unites organisms and systems, ecologies and societies. The roots of most plants are intimately entwined with fungi. These clandestine relationships extend beyond trees to include every orchid and most shrubs and grasses. Symbioses are the secret to success in our nutrient-deficient soils and highly variable climate.

Fungi not only help plants access water and nutrients, but also increase their resistance to drought and disease. They build architecture in soils, aerate them, and allow water to gently percolate to deeper horizons. The healthier our soils, the healthier our plants and waterways, agriculture and humans.

This highly interactive workshop begins around a specimen table, meeting fungi and exploring questions around their natural and cultural histories. We’ll discuss fungi through multiple lenses to reveal their importance to both ecosystems and human health. We’ll then head to the field in search of fungi.

This event is sponsored by Torquay and District Landcare.

Curry Punk & Devil’s Tooth – The Science & Aesthetics of Fungi

Alison will be appearing as part of the second Vienna Pilzfestspiele to offer this interactive seminar.

Throughout history, fungi have confounded with their strange appearances and dubious connotations. Humans are sharply divided in their regard for fungi – some revere them while others subject them to a reckless kick across the field.

Without fungi, life as we know it would be radically different. Fungi regulate the biosphere and support the earth’s ecological functioning. Yet the exceptionally few mushrooms with the capacity to dismantle human organs have received disproportionate attention. Centuries of mythologies and misunderstanding take time to unravel and redress.

In this highly interactive seminar Alison will introduce us to both the science and aesthetics of fungi. She’ll salso hare her experiences in the field with fungi and their followers across hemispheres. You’ll also hear some stories of Alison’s adventures during the photographing and writing of her two new books Funga Obscura: Photo Journeys Among Fungi & Mushroom Day: A Story of 24 Hours and 24 Fungal Lives.

Underground Lovers – Fostering Fungal Networks of the Subterrain

Alison will be presenting this talk as part of the Sensing Fungi: Invisible Agencies and the Underground Conference run by the Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften, Kunstuniversität Linz in Wien.

The earth’s changing climate and environmental challenges have come sharply into focus through the demise of charismatic megafauna and the ‘biodiversity crisis’.

But what about stinkhorns and slime moulds?

Fungi underpin terrestrial ecosystems, forming cross-kingdom collaborations with countless creatures and intimately entwining with plants. As vital pioneers, fungi are especially important in disturbed environments, kickstarting colonisation and recovery, yet are largely absent in biodiversity protocols and ‘management’ worldwide.

Fungi also wobble the assumptions and frameworks that we use to understand life, offering alternative ways to consider not just forests, but human societies.

Much of the dynamism of the natural world occurs in ecotones, or ‘interface environments’, which are also the domain of fungi. Likewise, the best possibilities for nurturing both natural and ruderal systems emerge at the intersections of disciplinary thought.

In this talk Alison will explore how can we foster fungal flourishing and thinking to re-enliven soils – the foundation of all terrestrial life.

Café Champignon: The Ecology, Conservation and Aesthetics of Fungi 

Following in the French tradition of Café Philosophique, Café Champignon brings the curiosities of the Kingdom Fungi into active conversation. In this interactive lecture, Alison prompts us to consider the ‘fungal awakening’, but also to ask whether the hyphae are keeping pace with the hype.

The intersections of science and art offer tremendous possibilities to communicate the complexities and conundrums of the Kingdom. Fungi have found their way into the public imagination but is it time to disentangle the alluring notion of the Wood Wide Web to ensure the stories are underpinned by science? Might we ask whether these newly minted metaphors are really doing fungi any favours?

With such a groundswell of public interest in fungi, tremendous opportunities exist to work across disciplines to ensure ecologically sound conservation that provides the best possibility for fungi and forests to flourish. Alison will share some of her experiences from the field working with foragers and foresters, farmers and First Nations people, scientists, artists and others to explore the challenges of understanding and conserving fungi through multiple lenses. In particular, we’ll explore how we might navigate the tensions between ecology, aesthetics and conservation.

Alison’s recent books, Mushroom Day and Funga Obscura will be available for purchase at the event.

Café Champignon: The Ecology, Conservation and Aesthetics of Fungi 

Following in the French tradition of Café Philosophique, Café Champignon brings the curiosities of the Kingdom Fungi into active conversation. In this interactive lecture, Alison prompts us to consider the ‘fungal awakening’, but also to ask whether the hyphae are keeping pace with the hype.

The intersections of science and art offer tremendous possibilities to communicate the complexities and conundrums of the Kingdom. Fungi have found their way into the public imagination but is it time to disentangle the alluring notion of the Wood Wide Web to ensure the stories are underpinned by science? Might we ask whether these newly minted metaphors are really doing fungi any favours?

With such a groundswell of public interest in fungi, tremendous opportunities exist to work across disciplines to ensure ecologically sound conservation that provides the best possibility for fungi and forests to flourish. Alison will share some of her experiences from the field working with foragers and foresters, farmers and First Nations people, scientists, artists and others to explore the challenges of understanding and conserving fungi through multiple lenses. In particular, we’ll explore how we might navigate the tensions between ecology, aesthetics and conservation.

Alison’s recent books, Mushroom Day and Funga Obscura will be available for purchase at the event.

FUNGAL PEDAGOGY – THREE DAY MASTERCLASS

In this highly interactive workshop Alison will demonstrate the various techniques she uses to capture people’s curiosity and convey vital information about fungi. It will include both indoor and outdoor activities. How can mushroom exhibitions be made more interesting? How do you arouse interest and meet the needs of different demographics? How do you convey and visualize complex scientific concepts? There will be plenty of opportunity for discussion and reflection as we explore the pros and cons of communicating fungi using specimens and images, story and metaphor, in-situ multi-sensory encounters, and other techniques. We especially welcome your ideas and experiences.

The workshop is aimed at anyone who communicates mycology in a broad sense to various target groups and in different contexts. Whether you’re a mycologist, mushroom consultant, researcher, teacher, non-profit association, journalist, artist, or other mycophile, we welcome your attendance. We hope to gather participants with many different experiences from Sweden and our neighboring countries Denmark, Finland and Norway. Maximum number of participants 35.

This event is organised and supported by Anders Dahlberg, Professor of Mycology at SLU and Rut Folke, mushroom consultant, together with Sweden’s Mycological Association and the National Association of Mushroom Consultants.