Nanyi Jiang

Multispecies Futures
Digital Interactions
Physical Computing
Ethnography
Photography
Writing
Crafting

About
Contact

Substrate Fantasia

TYPE OF WORK
Part of MFA Thesis

YEAR
2023
IMACT Core77 Sustainability Student Notable

OVERVIEWSubstrate Fantasia is a speculative fabulation of a substrate-centered world called Substratocene in 2180 - a transitional era between current Anthropocene towards an ecological utopia. The fabulation is illustrated through physical prototypes of living fungi chair, sporing garments and their nurseries. Through new interactions with living bio-interfaces in furnitures and garments, the work propose behavioral and attitudinal change in Substratocene.

This Substrate Fantasia film is collage of three vignettes in Substratocene:
I. Substratization Lab
II.Human-Fungi Co-living Experience
III. Re-defined Social Exchange

Substratocentric Thinking

I. Fungi-Human Lifecycles

II. Material Redefinition

Chair Nursery

The living chair and its nursery represents inclusion of non-human species into the constructed domestic space, creating new lifestyle in the Substratocene.

Chair Interaction Details

New interspecies furniture interactions of spore collection

Polypore at the back of the chair getting nutrient from the nursery

Sporing Garments

Sporing Suit and Garment Nursery are speculative artifacts in Substratocene, a substrate-centered world where human co-live and co-evolve with fungi.

Sporing Garments’ Interaction Details

A substratized sleeve sample growing with pink oyster mushroom

Climate reactivity of the fabric:release of fungi smell under rain

Body touch promoting spore exchange among human bodies

Nutrient dispense in helmet nursery

Livable Material Development

The speculation of this living garment enabled possibility of one-of-a-kind garment aesthetics enabled by uncertainty of fungi growth as well as material characteristics such as climate reactivity that instigate new sensual experiences.