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  • lecture: Mediamatic Biotoop

    Living Tower Talk #3

    29
    Sep 2023
    - Nurturing Timeless Knowledge

    Breaking Boundaries and Forming New Connections: Embracing Ecocentrism. Join us on a journey of chicken audiences, fungi, and a different point of view! Tickets
  • discussion
  • Pigeon Towers
  • Event
  • Fungus
  • pigeons

  • Nurturing Timeless Knowledge

    Living Tower Talk #3

    In the third episode of the Living Tower Talk series, titled "Nurturing Timeless Knowledge," attendees were treated to a fascinating exploration of ecocentrism, the beauty of circular movements...

  • The Harmony of Disorder: Functionality in Messy…

    Living Tower Talk #2

    On the second episode of the Living Tower Talk , Mediamatic welcomed Amsterdam-based infrastructure activist Debra Solomon to talk about co-existing with non-human entities and what a multispecies...
  • Mediamatic Biotoop Georgia Dalloro

    The Squabs are Here!

    Welcoming our feathered friends to Mediamatic

    After weeks of preparation the squabs (young pigeons) are finally here! Arne put the last changes in the pigeon tower loft last week, changing the roof from a flat one to one that can be opened (cut...

  • Living Tower Talks

    So much to learn. So much time.

    During the monthly Living Tower Talks, co-curated by  Arne Hendriks  and  Clemens Driessen , we come together to learn, discuss and rethink how we live. Mycelium-waste-pigeon-towers are taken as...

  • 100 Years of Learning

    Mycelium Towers as Guides for Collective Learning and R-Evolution

    A Century-long Masterclass During the Summer of 2020, Mediamatic joined forces with artist Arne Hendriks to explore the possibilities of using mycelium waste as a building material for constructing...
  • Pigeon Tower Mediamatic Biotoop Andy Cartier, Arne Hendriks

    Cartier

    Sept '20 – Pigeon Tower 03

    The third tower was build inside the Clean Lab . Two previous attempts to build a sturdy, living tower had failed. Time to take a step back. We did not know whether our principles were correct.
  • Mediamatic Biotoop Aya Koné

    Meeting Mycelium

    First Encounters at Dutch Design Week

    The material is strange, thick, sometimes oozing, with an odor that rises up just after you break open the plastic.
  • Pigeon Tower Mediamatic Biotoop Arne Hendriks, Nehis Osagie, Andy Cartier

    Jute

    June '20 – Pigeon Tower 02

    We put the remains of the collapsed tower from the first experiment in a long burlap tube. Burlap is a biodegradable textile, and provides structure and nourishment for the mycelium. We rolled up the...
  • Pigeon Tower Mediamatic Biotoop Dominik Einfalt, Arne Hendriks

    Yellow

    Feb '21 – Pigeon Tower 06

    The construction of this tower is mainly focused on speed and efficiency. It is a simple square design so we did not have to trim the blocks. To press them we organized a ‘Gentle Disco’. We gently...
  • Pigeon Tower Mediamatic Biotoop Dominik Einfalt, Arne Hendriks

    Gentle

    Oct '20 – Pigeon Tower 04

    The blocks of mycelium from mushroom grower John Verbruggen that we used to build are wide and heavy, and so they give us more security when stacking than in previous towers. Because we wanted to...
  • Proposal by: Leo Kay

    The Acid House Of Ideas

    Project Proposal: Bread, microbial and plant agency, fermentation, human evolution and collective ritual.

    A month-long participatory exhibition centered around the building of a model house of ergot-inoculated rye bread; exploring the recent history of human alienation from the land; the creative...
  • Pigeon Tower Mediamatic Biotoop Nehis Osagie, Arne Hendriks

    Babel

    June '20 – Pigeon Tower 01

    The first tower of mycelial waste. Living material. We mainly wanted to start. With a lot of enthusiasm but little precision or consultation. The uneven blocks were stacked intuitively. We filled the...
  • Pigeon Tower Arne Hendriks, Hannah Leitzke

    Stonk

    Sept '21 - Pigeon Tower 12

    Stonk is built with the waste material of the waste material. The mycelium blocks, our building material, are stacked up next to the shed. A full cycle of collecting the blocks, pressing them during...
  • Mediamatic Biotoop Nehis Osagie, Andy Cartier

    Commence Operation

    We are building a Pigeon Tower #2

    During the first building a mycelium pigeon tower workshop we had a lot of fun and learned a lot. Unfortunately, there is nothing left to show for all the hard work except pictures and videos. Now it...
  • Mediamatic Biotoop Nehis Osagie

    Ins & Outs / Do's & Dont's

    We are building a Pigeon Tower #1

    In this blog series we will share the findings we have discovered after every workshop. There will be many questions found here regarding the process of building the tower both from us and those who...
  • festival: Mediamatic Biotoop

    Japanese Knotweed Festival

    Under European regulations, invasive exotic species are allowed to be radically eradicated. The City of Amsterdam, for example, is allocating 8 million euros to aggressively destroy Japanese knotweed.
  • Mediamatic Biotoop Aya Koné

    Making Myco-clay

    Turning rotting mycelium into moldable material

    RECIPE 2 parts rotting mycelium 1 part hay/pink oyster mushroom mycelium A giant bucket A large tarp to lay out material 2+ feet/hands to stomp, turn, squish and mix
  • Mediamatic Biotoop

    Looking back at "Molding Mycelium: Plant Pots"…

    with Dominik Einfalt and Doudouce Knol

    Molding Mycelium: Plant Pots workshop was a culmination of the research and collaboration between interns from Mediamatic Clean Lab and Aquaponics Greenhouse. We're not hosting this workshop anymore
  • Pigeon Tower Mediamatic Biotoop Dominik Einfalt, Arne Hendriks

    I / O

    Dec '20 – Pigeon Tower 07

    I / O stands for Inside/Out and reverses the inside and outside of the tower. The walls of pigeon towers are smooth on the outside with a few holes so that the pigeons can enter. On the inside
  • Mediamatic Biotoop Arne Hendriks

    Pigeon Cam

    On the 7th of June 2022, almost two years after we first started learning how to build pigeon towers with waste mycelium, we introduced the first four squab (young pigeons) into their new living...
  • Tour Mediamatic Biotoop

    Private Tour of Mediamatic

    Get a glimpse behind the scenes, peak inside our sensorial labs, and learn more about the bio art installations around the Biotoop during our weekly tour on Friday! Ticket + drink
  • Pigeon Tower Mediamatic Biotoop Arne Hendriks

    Chim

    Aug '21 – Pigeon Tower 11

    Chim is the first tower in which we placed wooden pigeon lofts. Because the mycelium bricks shrink after construction, we created a continuous ring of lofts. These lofts were placed directly on the...
  • Tours: Mediamatic Biotoop

    Open Daily Tours

    16
    Mar 2026
    18
    Dec 2026

    Welcome to Mediamatic! We aren't a traditional art center where you just look at things on a wall. We are a Biotope, a living environment where art, design, and science meet. Everything here is a...
  • Mediamatic Biotoop Mily Bogaarts

    Death is in the air, and you can smell it

    The demise of the pigeon towers

    While mushrooms emerge, grow, mature and decay, the towers shrink and bend under their own weight. And we keep building. Trying to reach and hold the height of the tower. We feel the need to repair...

created Matilda Mulder modified Emma Fukuwatari Huffman

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