Mycelial Minds: Building sensory light powered by natural fungal rhythms.
Category: Furniture
Competitions: Home Competition 2026
All life is electrical. Plants, fungi, and humans alike rely on electrochemical impulses to grow, heal, and communicate, yet the electrical intelligence of the natural world remains largely invisible to us. Rooted in the emerging field of fungal electronics, this project investigates the bioelectric activity of mycelium - the vast, branching networks of fungi - that communicate beneath the soil through action potentials strikingly similar to those of human neurons. The hypothesis is that this electrical intelligence, when translated into a sensory design experience, can offer users a genuinely new relationship with the natural world. Their microvolt signals were recorded and translated into light through physical computing, producing a biophilic lighting experience in which every flicker originates directly from fungal electrical activity. Different species carry distinct clinical properties, and these are reflected in the character of each light. Reishi, long recognised for supporting sleep and mental rest, produces warm amber tones that pulse slowly and gently. Users can move between species through a wireless web app, choosing the quality of light - and the nature of the experience - they want to inhabit. The piece is housed within a hand-hammered steel dome and incorporates a translucent mycelium biomaterial, allowing users to touch and see the very organism whose rhythms animate the light. In an increasingly digital world, Mycelial Minds makes the hidden language of nature visible, and invites us to slow down and listen.
