A World of Holobionts✷
Mamoun Nukumanu is an artist and designer working toward a more symbiotic future. Working with biomaterials, mycelium and arborsculpture, he is embarking on a world-making project that reimagines ways of living alongside the other organisms that inhabit the earth.
CA: Starting off, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got to where you are now?
MN: I was originally interested in studying microbiology, and I was interested in studying fungal bioremediation. Then I started growing fungi for the purpose of bioremediation and didn’t get super far, ang became fascinated with them as forms. I’ve always been making art, and at that point got into making art with mycelium casting. Then I got into arborsculpture and tree shaping, and then I started working at Terreform, which kind of unifies most of those things.
Can you tell me about your work? How would you describe your practice?
I actually had a similarly titled rationale at Gallatin, it was looking at how the creation of bio designed objects and symbiotic relationships, specifically plants, in the built environment could create new mythologies that could then shape culture. I’m interested in how different ways of interacting with organisms and the construction of symbiotic relationships could both produce new geometries or shapes, and also shape human actions. I’m interested in the relationship between humans as the designers and users of a space interacting with holobionts or ecology. Seeing how those relationships can both change.
I also just like making random things that are kind of unrelated, I got into building rafts recently.
Can you tell me more about your raft?
I was trying to figure out if I could live on a raft and rent my apartment on Airbnb. But then I made one and figured out it's probably not possible, but I am making another one.The idea of it was just to make a floating camping platform, trying to challenge the idea of the privatization of coastlines. All of the coastlines (in NYC) have some kind of bulkhead, in some places/parks it's like a beach, but in most places it's a wall. I like climbing down the wall into the water and making autonomous zones. I was trying to make a willow dome on a platform, but it hasn’t worked yet, as typical. I’m making one that's a tetrahedron right now, and trying to make it a tree root dome.
How do you feel about NYC’s relationship with its coastline?
I mean, I’ve toured the water treatment plants and they are pretty epic, but we have a huge issue with Combined Sewage Overflow. So apart from having floating wetlands and stuff, I think we have to decouple the septic systems from the drains before we can change this much. But I do think the river has become a lot more accessible in recent years.
Do you consider your practice to be multidisciplinary?
Yeah definitely, it's definitely at the border of pure art, some architecture, also some engineering and recently a little bit of algorithmic design, parametric design. Recently I’ve gone more into the digital realm, which can sometimes get a little tiring. I don’t like the interface, but it's a useful tool and can be fun.
How do you relate to other species within your work?
I have certain partner organisms that I’ve worked with for a while. Recently I’ve been working with willow. That’s been nice because it’s been easy to get a supply of living wood to work with. It’s more transportable and comes in different scales. I like to find an organism that I’m really hyped on and focus on it for a while.
Do you think it's better to work with one organism specifically?
No, I think it's better to work with what’s around. I work with things that I don’t have to buy. The fungi species I get are all blue oyster because I don’t want to have to buy anything. I can get whatever willow species are around here or within 300 miles. Mostly I’ve been working with mycelium and willow, and some other types of trees. I think it's very specific to place, site specificity is key. The best assemblage of things to work with are probably those that are right around you.
How do you think humans can work to create habitats for other species inside their built environments?
I think the key way is to focus on the concept of pioneer species and ecosystem engineering. Plants are one of the primary ecosystem engineers. Just the incorporation of plants that are alive and healthy and have the space to evolve freely in building facades, parks and roofs is a key aspect. You can provide a direct habitat or cultivate plants that provide a non-specific habitat. The incorporation of plants into built structures would improve both insect, bird and small mammal biodiversity. Recently I’ve been thinking about how to incorporate plants into architectural facade elements, specifically with 3D printed clay. However you do it, I think that more plants in cities would be a first step to more multispecies cities.
How do you think humans can change the way they relate to other species?
I think it is by directly interacting and becoming part of an ecology that you can be affected by it. I don’t think there would be a mentality change that would directly arise without being in conversation with something. If you don’t live near the forest, it’s kind of hard to evolve with the forest. I think it’s more about what is tangible and directly around you.
Do you think that artists can play a role in the process of developing new ways to relate with other species?
I think we can bring light to certain relationships and playfully propose new ways of interaction. Ideally though, to create an altered relationship it would have to be on a larger scale. Having a larger time of your life sitting with that kind of mentality or becoming more enmeshed in a particular ecology. I think with globalism we have a global-social ecology that is affected by international shipping patterns. We’ve created a macro-ecology that we are always engaging with. To be engaged in a different way with a tangible assemblage of beings we would have to be directly in conversation with them. We have to go talk to the urban plants, the plants growing out of cracks in the city and find out what to do through that direct conversation.
It's also a product of our society now. The spaces we inhabit influence the way that people think about nature, our cities and towns are partitioned, creating a divide between the natural and cultural sphere. Infrastructural and city wide design changes would result in a different relationship to a certain degree. I don’t know how to affect culture and I’m not interested in trying to change people’s minds, I just want to make what I want to make. I want my work to directly help the organisms around them, but whatever people think of it is great for them. Not everyone wants to be friends with insects, and they don’t have to be.
Do you think it is important to have an ecologically situated art practice?
No, not really, I dont think it's important. If that is what you want to make then it is important to be true to what you want to make, but I think whatever you want to make is up to you. I don’t think it's bad if you are, say, a metal artist and just want to make metal sculptures that are really sharp. In reality, nothing you do on an artistic scale is going to affect global infrastructure, unless it does conceptually. By physical mass it’s not going to change anything. So you might as well go for it conceptually and make whatever you want to make.
How do you see your practice evolving in the future?
I’d like to make more large-scale things. I’m trying to move into building little houses, like tiny homes. I want to make more floating structures. I want to get back into building hot air balloons. I want to start making music again. I kind of want to start a business and just sell willow domes on the side, but I haven’t really planned it out.
What would be an ideal project for you?
There are many different ones, but the one that I really want to figure out is to make a floating wetland house/tiny home. It is in the same vein as the raft, but where the floating elements are all bio based, mixing mycelium with plant based resins and wooden frames and different organic fabric. It would have a structural frame of living willow that weaves through everything. Like a root mold boat/house/floating tree mix thing. It has to be in freshwater, it can’t be in the river here in the city✸