Spawn, as in Mushrooms

How to grow an artist (a recipe, revised several times)

1. Take one empty city. 2020 had plenty.

2. Add projectors. Lots of projectors. Enough projectors.

3. Inoculate with five Artists in Residence from Yarra Youth Services. Keep them 1.5 metres apart. Spores don’t care about that rule. We did.

4. Leave somewhere dark and slightly damp. Fitzroy laneways are ideal.

5. Do not over-water with advice. Teach them everything. Teach them how to test, then get out of the way.

6. Wait.

7. Wait more. Mycelium is mostly wating that looks like nothing from above.

What came up was not what we planted. That’s the bit I keep thinking about. A lab is a place where you’re allowed to be wrong in public, slowly, in good company.

Spores go where spores go. I hope some of them never think about us again. That’s the best compliment a fungus can pay.

From the project: SPAWN Lab