Russell Ladson
2022 Graduate Research Fund Awardee
Art & Public Policy Class of 2022
Russell Ladson is an artist and researcher based in Oakland, CA.
His work uses modes of computation to investigate the relationships and possibilities between the living matter and the more-than-human world that explore space, time, and memory.
His most recent project, Myco-Interfaces: Exploring Sensor Technologies in Mycelial Networks, examines how mycelium, the root system for fungi, can be used as a material and agent in designing novel, speculative biological interfaces in human-computer interaction. The project is currently being prepared for journal publication. His research interests are broadly in organic interfaces, science and technology studies, and computational media.
PROJECT
Fungal Memories
Fungal Memories is a thought experiment into the relationship and possibilities between fungi, memory, and space colonization. This project seeks to explore the following questions:
How might fungal memories and other living matter be carried into non-Earth locations?
In the transportation of fungi to non-Earth locations, how might fungal memories engage in/with colonial, anti-colonial, postcolonial discourse?
How does the displacement of fungi to non-Earth locations inscribe the colonial imagery into these new lands?