UNCLE DAVE WANDIN (WIL-IM-EE MOORING; WURUNDJERI COUNCIL) will yarn through time, ash and soil. DIEGO BONETTO will discuss practices of wilding, from the ground up. ANN LAWRIE (THE AUSTRALIAN ORCHID FOUNDATION; SCHOOL OF SCIENCE, RMIT) will share her research into soil-plant-microorganism systems, in particular the mycorrhizal symbioses between fungi and endangered Australian orchids. BEN BYRNE (SCHOOL OF DESIGN, DIGITAL MEDIA, RMIT) will reflect on fungal questions for experimental sonic practice.

As alternative patterns of food production and consumption, foraging and wild food gathering realign and reconnect plants, fungi and humans. Knowledge, care and considered observation are fundamental to identifying where, how and why fungi ‘flush’ in certain micro-climates. But the appearance above ground is only part of it; to understand mushrooms, we need to go underground, upturning the soil shot through with mycelial communication networks carrying nutrients, information, time, and promise.

This workshop brings together specialists, researchers and artists whose plant-thinking will help us explore questions such as: How does soil hold time, events and knowledge? What specific attunements might enable us to listen rhizomatically? What other knowledges do we need to cultivate a hypertemporal, multidimensional perception of landscape?

This event is one branch of the WHY LISTEN TO PLANTS? exhibition program at RMIT Design Hub. Plants know worlds, they contain worlds and they make worlds