[NetBehaviour] nature over philosophy

[Alan Sondheim]

nature over philosophy

http://www.alansondheim.org/becoming.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/Schizophyllumcommune.jpg
Split Gill fungus

from Wikipedia:

"It has 23,328 distinct mating types. Individuals of any mating
type are compatible for mating with most other mating types.
There are two genetic loci determining the mating type, locus A
with 288 alleles and locus B with 81 alleles. A pair of fungi
will only be fertile if they have different A and different B
alleles;[6] that is, each mating type can enter fertile pairings
with 22,960 others.

"a species of fungus in the genus Schizophyllum. The mushroom
resembles undulating waves of tightly packed corals or loose
Chinese fan. "Gillies" or "split gills" vary from creamy yellow
to pale white in colour. The cap is small, 14 centimetres
(381+58 in) wide with a dense yet spongey body texture. It is
known as the split-gill mushroom because of the unique
longitudinally divided nature of the "gills" on the underside of
the cap. This mushroom is found throughout the world.

It is found in the wild on decaying trees after rainy seasons
followed by dry spells where the mushrooms are naturally
collected. It is known for its high medicinal value and aromatic
taste profile. It has recently attracted the medicinal industry
for its immunomodulatory, antifungal, antineoplastic and
antiviral activities that are higher than those of any other
glucan complex carbohydrate."

Fairly common; we haven't seen them in the east. The fungus was
at a distance, on a piece of wood partly in the Providence
River; I had to process the image to bring out the structure.
We'll return soon for a better image.

The combination of "schizo" "phyllumm" and "commune" brings to
mind, obviously, Occupy, Deleuze Guattari, assemblages (which
are represented in a sense by the recent mini-biome photographs
I've been able to take). Again, adjacency come to mind, as well
as webs, communities, transmissions. What the "becoming" image
represents semiotically, the Schizophyllumcommune image might be
considered the spore-adic dissemination of representation. What
might be gender differentiation when it is in the tens of
thousands? What is schizo-anything when the divisions are
fractal? (Of course that may well be what schiz is, but that's
not beside the point but within it, degree zero. (Bad pun.))

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