Operate with Fungi

A new publication that explores how working with fungi can bridge divides and build strong connections.  

Edited by Vera Meyer und Wolfgang Schäffner
Berlin: Berlin Universities Publishing, 2024. - 151 S.
Download the full book here

Following Mind the Fungi (2020) and Engage with Fungi (2022), Operate with Fungi is the final book in a trilogy dedicated to the world of fungi and their possibilities. In all three projects, various scientific, artistic and civil society actors from the Berlin area worked together in different constellations to learn from the life of Funga, to be inspired by the possibilities of fungal biotechnology and, building on this, to jointly develop new fungal-based biomaterials that can form the basis of a circular and bio-based economy and architecture. While the first two books focused more on the why and how of transdisciplinary collaboration, this book reports on how working with fungi can bridge divides and build strong connections. Between highly specialised scientific and artistic disciplines, and between closed university laboratories and open social spaces. Operate with Fungi invites us to reflect on the world of Funga, which is so closely intertwined with the world of Flora and Fauna. It offers options as to how we can create a sustainable future for our species that respects planetary boundaries and offers constructive solutions to climate change.”

Open Fung  has an essay in the section of the book titled, Working in the field of tension between science, art, and society.  The essay, The collaborative research initiative Open Fung, explores the organization, the solutions we are working to create and how art is central to our  scientific work.