Artifacts: The Busts of Nefertiti and Socrates
By combining 3D printing and mycelium, these artifacts become a sculptural organism. The living organism inhabits the print by growing around and through it. Using PLA with wood impurities, the mycelium is encouraged to use the print as a structure. The busts of Nefertiti and Socrates are public domain 3D scans. Allowing the mycelium to grow organically on these recognizable forms lets the mycelium make form decisions. Watching organic growth overtake these sculptures is grotesque in it’s own right. These objects aspire to provoke and intrique. They are bizarre enough to ask “How is that possible?”
To make these artifacts, I applied the knowledge from my experiments SCLPT_Wellhead, RECT_PERF_25, and STRCT_V_WPLA1. These experiments were based around embedding a 3D print into a mycelial composite. The mesh files of the busts were perforated using a grasshopper script created by Jasper Cohen. The 3D printed parts were packed with hemp hurds that were innoculated with oyster mushrooms.
