Myc-Doh


2023

In collaboration with Sasha Fishman.

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Myc-Doh is a versatile, living biomaterial made from sawdust, mycelium, paper pulp, clay, and a gelling agent. Developed by artists Sasha Fishman and Lera Niemackl, who integrate and specialize in bioplastics and mycology. This dough is designed to grow and evolve beyond its initial form. It can be hand-sculpted, applied to an armature, pinched, or shaped into slabs and coils. The inclusion of cellulose in the dough provides food for the mycelium, allowing the entire structure to transform as the mycelium colonizes it. Over time, the dough changes in color and texture, while starting as a white, fluffy, mat and evolving into a vibrant, mottled landscape, of red, purple, orange, and brown shades. Within two weeks, it begins to sprout mushrooms.

Mycelium Dough’s tactile engagement and ongoing transformation question where agency begins and ends between the maker and the mycelium body. The material’s entropic evolution challenges our expectations of finite and stable matter, inviting reconsideration of the boundaries between living and non-living objects.

Xylaria polymorpha doh

Using our same formulation but with different fungal species!





Pycnoporus sanguineus doh