I am Mushroom: Anticipatory Aesthetics, Futures Pheromones and Fungal Play

Marcus Bussey; Catherine McNicholl

doi:10.1177/19467567251400290

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I am Mushroom: Anticipatory Aesthetics, Futures Pheromones and Fungal Play

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

I am Mushroom: Anticipatory Aesthetics, Futures Pheromones and Fungal Play

Marcus Bussey and Catherine McNicholl

World Future Review, Vol.Advanced access

2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/19467567251400290

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Abstract

mushroom

fungal futures

fungal fague

futures pheromones

Gaia

futures senses

Interplay

This paper takes the mycorrhizal as a metaphor for culture. It posits that we, you and I, and everyone else have deep roots in our cultures and that to engage environmental futures calls us to engage with this deeper level of being as part of what Donna Haraway calls ‘natural cultural histories’. This insight is explored through a series of fungal reflections in which ‘thinking as a body’ is central to destabilising the sense that we are individuals. Always our individuality is conditional and open, embedded as it is in cultural flows. The paper touches on some theoretical dimensions to this understanding and then turns to exploring how the author develops these understandings in his own work. To illustrate this fungal play and its pheromonal possibilities the paper is accompanied by illustrations from Cat McNicholl.

Details

Title: I am Mushroom: Anticipatory Aesthetics, Futures Pheromones and Fungal Play
Authors: Marcus Bussey (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Law and Society
Catherine McNicholl - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative Industries
Publication details: World Future Review, Vol.Advanced access
Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc.
DOI: 10.1177/19467567251400290
ISSN: 2169-2793
Copyright note: © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Organisation Unit: School of Business and Creative Industries; School of Law and Society; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991186142702621
Output Type: Journal article

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