Knowledge Share Description
In ‘Mycelium as Methodology’, Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez explores what fungi can teach us about interconnected approaches to collaborative and creative practices. Fungi are an inexhaustible source of inspiration for transformation: from the way we move through different notions of time to how we rethink death.
This knowledge share delves into the question of how we might organise ourselves like a mycelium – the subterranean fungal network. It focuses specifically on mycorrhizal networks that establish symbiotic relationships with other entities to exchange resources. What might this kind of relationship look like in our daily human lives when we work in collectives or in collaboration with other species? How can we expand them to create more balanced and equitable methodologies and connections within creative communities?
This knowledge share is based on Ostendorf-Rodríguez´ book Let´s Become Fungal! Mycelium Teachings and the Arts.
Date: Sunday September 13, 2026
Time: 3:00pm – 5:00PM EST
Cost: FREE for Living Library hbc members | Sliding Scale $45, $65, $90 for Non-members
We will explore:
How to organize like mycelium and build relationships of solidarity and exchange across disciplines and borders
How to re-think death, decay and decomposition based on the wisdom of fungi
How to understand the closeness of toxicity and to resist the demand for purity
How our imagination can shape new worlds and how to re-train our senses
How to resist categorization by thinking and being non-binary
What fungi are teaching us about multispecies models of collaboration
How to move through different notions of time
How language can help guide us into the fungal paradigm
How to find your fungal alter-ego
Who this Knowledge Share is For
Mushroom and plant lovers
Artists, writers, and cultural practitioners interested in experimental and interdisciplinary approaches to collaboration
Organizers, facilitators, and collective members seeking new frameworks for more reciprocal and interconnected ways of working
Environmental thinkers, ecologists, and students exploring more-than-human, multispecies perspectives
People engaged in social, political, or cultural work who want to rethink systems of hierarchy, purity, and separation
Those curious about fungi, mycelium, and ecological metaphors as tools for imagination and practice
Educators and researchers interested in alternative methodologies rooted in relational thinking
Anyone drawn to questions of transformation, decomposition, and regeneration as creative and political processes
Practitioners exploring how language, imagination, and perception can shape new ways of being in the world
Participants will leave with
Enhanced awareness of Indigenous knowledge systems and their ongoing role in cacao cultivation, preparation, and cultural meaning
Practical tools for recognizing ethical, sustainable, and sovereignty-supporting cacao products
A deeper appreciation for the power of storytelling that accurately reflects history, place, and people
Cost
$45 - community
$65 - standard
$90 - pay-it-forward (if you have financial abundance, this is our pay-it-forward option to fund our full tuition scholarships)
For more information on sliding scale please check out this amazing work!
The zoom link will be sent upon registration. Recording will be available for 30 days.
Please apply here for a scholarship.
or access this knowledge share for free by enrolling as a member of the Living Library
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Accessibility Information
Virtual Gathering
*ASR (automated) captioning provided
The knowledge share zoom link will be sent out immediately upon purchase, along with any other necessary information.
Sunday September 13, 2026
3:00pm - 5:00pm Eastern Standard Time
Class will be recorded and available for 30 days. This means you can join from anywhere in the world.
Facilitator
Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez is the founder and director of the Green Art Lab Alliance (established in 2012); a network comprising eighty art organizations across Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean and Asia. The mission of the alliance is to foster relationships that contribute to social and environmental justice, akin to the interconnected nature of mycelium. She founded and directed the Nature Research Department at the Jan van Eyck Academie (Netherlands, 2017), the Van Eyck Food Lab (2018), and the Future Materials Bank (2020); a crowd-sourced database of sustainable materials for artists, designers and architects. She organised countless Reading Groups, Food Art Film Festivals and has been curator-in-residence, as well as writer-in-residence, in many art institutions worldwide, from Brazil to Taiwan. She is a self-proclaimed "mycophile", interested in exploring the application of a mycological lens in defining fair models of collaboration and (self) organization. Her debut book, "Let's Become Fungal! Mycelium Teachings and the Arts," shares twelve teachings of the world of fungi. It was originally published by Valiz and has been translated into various languages, including Spanish, Korean and Mandarin.