In collaboration with the amazing, Saša Spačal and written for Antennae Magazine: Microbial Ecologies Autumn 2022 Edition.

Shiro’s Carrier Bag is a speculative fiction story following the multispecies journey of Shiro - a hybrid creature, part-human, part-fungi - who is called to the Underworld by chthonic forces. Set in the timespace of her late body’s decomposition in a beech forest, Shiro’s memories and stories are dispersed into networks and woven into new meanings through collaboration and interactions. The story is composed of co-authored fungal ontologies, Facilitated by MycoMythologies: Storytelling Circle workshops. In these workshops, participants are guided to create their own speculative stories, based off of embodied mycological practices creating caring and inclusive storytelling practices for multispecies survival.

FULL TEXT: can be viewed by clicking any image, or from downloading the free PDF

Acknowledgements

The short stories included in this narrative were guided into existence through MycoMythologies: Storytelling Circle workshops facilitated by Kaitlin Bryson and Saša Spačal. These gatherings employed the following participatory methodologies: Spores and Networks Guided Meditation, Mycelial Storytelling Objects, How to be a Mushroom Hunter Soundwalk, Carrier Bag Weaving Tutorial and Mycelial Map-Making.

Shiro’s Carrier Bag Storytelling Circle: Kaitlin Bryson, Saša Spačal, Vanya Ward-Lambrecht, Katja Striedelmeyer, Hanna Paniutsich.

Passing on and Passing Away: Katja Striedelmeyer

Traveler’s Story: Vanya Ward-Lambrecht

Belarusian Mushroom Picker: Hanna Paniutsich

Shiro’s Carrier Bag Images by Kaitlin Bryson, Saša Spačal, Vanya Ward-Lambrecht, Hanna Paniutsich, Katja Striedelmeyer were transformed in post-production by Saša Spačal.

Thank you to editors Ken Rinaldo and Giovanni Aloi and to all the other contributors of Autumn 2022 edition.

MycoMythologies: Storytelling Circle would not have been possible without the support and generosity of Dr. Victoria Vesna, UCLA Art|Sci Center, KID KIbla and HfK Bremen.

The MycoMythologies series expresses deep admiration for the wisdom, work, and legacies of Lion’s Mane Hericium erinaceus, Oyster mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus, Octavia E. Butler, and Ursula K. Le Guin.