FabFungus is a simulation of the growth of a lifeform determined by the controlled parameters of its developmental conditions. The creative power of Kaliski’s algorithm was optimized by Straszak and Zub for 3D printing. Thus, technological capabilities determined how this virtual artificial life would eventually be fabricated, i.e. translated into the material world.

Thanks to the simple assumption of a relation between mathematical world order and the biological principles of mycelium proliferation, the resulting form – based on autopoiesis, i.e. self-reproducing using only its own elements – can be considered a speculation about its occurrence in non-earthly conditions. It is therefore a tool available for further exploitation once new parameters are set.

FabFungus, developed by Szymon Kaliski, Marek Straszak, and Arek Zub, is a technologically advanced piece of work that appropriates the theoretical perspective of medianatures and their potential adaptation in a digital biological environment. The data in this project are part of a new nature, their physical representation is only one of possible biological code interpretations. It is a redefinition of the living and the non-living, the artificial and the natural. This work asks to what extent algorithms and “non-human” programming languages are closer to “nature” and biological definitions compared to the anthropocentric strategies of creating cultural narratives and myths. (Prof. Agnieszka Jelewska, Michał Krawczak, PhD, Adam Mickiewicz University)