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https://fungal.page is a net art page, as a tribute to Wikipedia that takes the form of a mycelium invaded Wikipedia article. I wanted to picture it as a post-human vestige, an artefact invaded by biomorphic figures and spreading typography. I focused on how to create organic ornaments, affecting the encyclopedia’s interface, its typography, the figures and the Wikipedia logo itself. This piece also exists in other forms: A riso fanzine, stickers, poster and open source typeface. The main concept is spreading through media, just like fungi does in a fertile environment. Raphaelbastide ( talk) 13:47, 4 January 2023 (UTC)
Hello user:Raphaelbastide thanks for checking. I'd love this page to become a hub for people to share their work and for other to be inspired. Though for sharing information of Wikipedia I believe a reliable secondary source is needed. Is there any news coverage of your work which you can share? For Wikimedia Commons, I believe (but please check!) that it's perfectly fine to upload images of your work. Be aware about the CC-BY license though. Cheers CorradoNai ( talk) 17:34, 4 January 2023 (UTC)
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
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Reviewing |
Reviewer: TompaDompa ( talk · contribs) 09:47, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
I will review this. Since the article is extremely lengthy (significantly more than 10,000 words), this will probably take a long time, and I intend to do it piecemeal. I'll ping you when I'm done. TompaDompa ( talk) 09:47, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
Use of fungal materials in artistic works, which would seem to suggest that the article is about using fungi to create art (e.g. using fungus-based dyes for paintings) rather than depictions of fungi in art (e.g. paintings of fungi).
enormous influence,
extremely various and prolific, and
incredibly diverse. This recurs in the body.
entheogenic (psychoactive)– not synonyms. Either gloss entheogen properly or just say "psychoactive".
Atzec– typo.
belonging to the eukaryotes (nucleated or 'higher' organisms)– what's the relevance of this?
being neglected or ignored– this is an opinion expressed in WP:WikiVoice.
Virtually all areas of the arts have been infiltrated by fungi– overly poetic phrasing.
Artists working with fungi are mostly representing (describing), showcasing (symbolizing), transforming, or utilizing them.– the meaning of this is not obvious. I gather that this is rather important to the overall thesis (for lack of a better word) of the article.
The distinction between these art practices and approaches are not clear-cut– subject–verb disagreement.
use them as narrative, rhetorical, stylistic, or stage element– the last word should be plural.
artists using fungi as transformative agent– the last word should be plural.
often explore the topic of transformation, decay, renewal, sustainability, circularity of matter– is this one topic or several? Either way its ungrammatical.
For 'indirect influence of fungi' it is meant the depiction or description of the effect of fungi– grammar. Also WP:REFERSTO.
the creation of art upon influence of fungi-derived substances– "upon"?
could also be considered an indirect influence of fungi in the art– MOS:WEASEL.
Further important aspects of fungi in art– having the title appear in bold in the fourth paragraph of the lead is way too late. Either include it in the first paragraph (sentence, really) or not at all.
Traditionally, mushrooms have been the main subject for depiction in the arts [...] the enormous plasticity of fungi enables artists to work with different fungal forms to create very diverse artworks.– unsourced.
Artworks representing, showcasing, transforming, and utilizing fungi.– which is which? The rest of the caption doesn't make that clear.
Clockwise from upper left– I'm fairly certain that's not the case. Clockwise from upper left would end with the bottom left image, but the description seems to end with the bottom right one.
1000 BCE-500 AD– use either BCE/CE or BC/AD, but be consistent. Since the rest of the article uses "BCE" consistently, I would suggest simply replacing "AD" with "CE" here. See also MOS:ENDASH.
Artists have often represented or described mushrooms as decorative, naturalistic, or symbolic element. In the graphic arts, architecture, sculpture, and literature, artists mostly represented or showcased mushrooms.– not in the cited sources.
mostly represented or showcased mushrooms– as opposed to mostly doing something else with mushrooms or as opposed to mostly representing/showcasing something else?
Currently, contemporary artists are increasingly– MOS:CURRENT.
Currently, contemporary artists are increasingly including mushrooms in their artworks.– this statement is followed by three sources, two of which verify nothing while the third merely says
Today, according to the curator of a new art exhibition, artists are more interested in fungi than ever before.The statement in this Wikipedia article is both stronger and more specific than the one made by the source.
as for example in– pleonasm.
Early depictions of fungi are petroglyphs from the Bronze Age– this is a general statement, but was presumably meant to be a specific one.
Given the mysterious, seasonal, sudden, and at times inexplicable appearance of mushrooms, as well as the hallucinogenic or toxic effects of some species, their depiction in ethnic, classic and modern art (around 1860–1970) is often associated in Western art with the macabre, ambiguous, dangerous, mystic, obscene, disgusting, alien, or curious in paintings, illustrations, and works of fiction and literature.– this kind of WP:ANALYSIS categorically needs to come from the sources.
Visual artists representing mushrooms have been very prolific throughout history. Whereas examples before the 15th century are rare, examples abound from European visual arts from the 1500 onwards including periods as the Renaissance, the Baroque, Flemish, and Romantic periods.– not in the cited source.
The 'Shaggy ink cap' and the Coprinus comatus– these two are the same, right?
The 'Shaggy ink cap' and the Coprinus comatus and the 'Common ink cap' Coprinus atramentaria mushrooms produce spores by deliquescing (liquefying, or melting) their cap into a black ink, which can be used in drawing, illustration, and calligraphy.– this could and should be condensed. It contains a lot of unnecessary details.
Protocols to produce the 'mushrooms ink' can be found online.– WP:NOTHOWTO.
as in petroglyphs representing mushroom-headed people discovered near the Pegtymel River (Siberia)– already mentioned.
around the world, including in western and non-western works– rather odd phrasing that doesn't provide much information. "Around the world" would seem to imply basically everywhere. Why elaborate further? Why use "western and non-western", specifically? Seems like WP:Systemic bias to me.
more mushrooms are present in artworks from cultures considered to be mycophiles– that hardly seems surprising. I might even expect this to be true by definition.
considered to be mycophiles– by whom?
collects and describe– grammar.
During the Victorian era, numerous scientists drew accurate illustrations of fungi, blurring the border between mycology and the arts.– unsourced.
Art periods and artists are categorized as follows in the registry:– so what? This is clearly out of proportion in this article. It might belong in an article about the registry itself, but not here.
Notable examples– see MOS:Words to watch.
Notable examples of visual artists depicting mushrooms and how they contributed to both mycology and the arts are:– how were these examples chosen? This is also a bad use of a list in a prose article.
how they contributed to both mycology and the arts– contributions to mycology are WP:OFFTOPIC if they don't relate to the arts. The Beatrix Potter entry is an example of going off-topic like this.
Hundreds of his paintings have been digitized by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel (Philadelphia)– superfluous detail.
He is known for his excellent illustrations– that's an opinion.
174 13" by 15"– clunky phrasing. This notation is also to be avoided, see MOS:INCH.
A countless number [...] abound– pleonasm.
Non-fiction books about fungi, especially those involving identification of fungi, includes photographs of fungal species and their fruiting bodies.– subject–verb disagreement.
Work of literary fiction– grammar.
Work of literary fiction involving mushrooms and fungi are often linked to [...]– I'm guessing this is meant to say that the mushrooms and fungi, rather than the fiction itself, are linked to that stuff.
often linked to infection, decay, toxicity, mystery, fantasy, and ambiguity, and thus have mostly a negative connotation– could you provide a quote from the source that verifies this?
In line with the assumption– whose assumption?
During the Victorian era, fungi started to acquire a more playful, childish, or jolly role in works of literary fiction.– not in the cited source.
Several renowned authors have used fungi as plot device.– MOS:PUFFERY.
These include Percy Shelly, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, D.H. Lawrence, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, and more.– "These include" means that the list is non-exhaustive, making "and more" redundant. I also find it questionable that it's necessary to give this many examples.
Lord Alfred Tennyson– I've heard this person referred to as "Alfred, Lord Tennyson", "Lord Tennyson", "Alfred Tennyson", and often just plain "Tennyson", but never "Lord Alfred Tennyson". I don't know if it's strictly speaking incorrect, but it sticks out.
Percy Shelly– typo.
Fungi have been a common trope in the science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy and crime fiction genres. Fungi have a long tradition in science fiction.– repetitive.
In Ray Bradbury's Come into My Cellar– the titles of short stories are presented in "quotation marks", not italics.
alien invasors– typo.
Fungi have been a common trope in the science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy and crime fiction genres. [...] Crime and detective writer Agatha Christie has repeatedly used mushrooms as murder weapon in her crime fiction.– does all of this come from the source cited at the end?
A non-exhaustive list of fictional stories involving mushrooms is given below:– why? This is not TV Tropes.
The quarterly periodical FUNGI Magazine runs a regular feature called Bookshelf Fungi reviewing fiction and non-fiction books on fungi.– unsourced.
In Western culture poetry, as in literature, fungi are historically associated with negative feelings or sentiments, although, together with the rising popularity of fungi, this trend might hold less true in recent years.– this kind of WP:ANALYSIS categorically needs to come from the sources.
The poem The Mushroom (1896) by Emily Dickinson is unsympathetic towards mushrooms. American author of weird horror and supernatural fiction H. P. Lovercraft created a collection of cosmic horror sonnets with fungi as subject called Fungi from Yuggoth (1929–30). Margaret Atwood's poem Mushrooms (1981) explores the topics of the life cycle and nature.– not in the cited source.
True to the observation that Asian cultures are mycophilic, several hundreds of Japanese haiku have as their subject mushrooms and mushroom hunting– not compliant with WP:NPOV. This is endorsing a particular viewpoint. This needs to be given WP:INTEXT attribution to the source that says that (1) Asian cultures are mycophilic and (2) this is reflected in haiku writing.
Numerous haiku have been recently translated into English.– superfluous detail, and MOS:RECENT.
fungi have had an conspicuous influence in mythology– "conspicuous"?
across various latitudes, civilizations, and historical epochs– why latitudes?
has arguably contributed– MOS:EDITORIALIZING.
The distinction between literature, folklore, and myth is not always clear cut, and occasionally open to interpretations.– who says so in this context?
Some writers argue that fungi have inspired numerous myths, and vice versa that many myths can be re-interpreted through the lens of fungal ecology.– do some authors say the former and others the latter, or do the same people say both? This also needs to be sourced.
Juda Iscariot– typo.
Occasionally, the involvement of fungi in myth and folklore is driven by allegory, cultural practices, or popular interpretations.– Unsourced.
For example, given the cultural relevance and prevalence of fermented (alcoholic) beverages throughout history, there are numerous deities associated with wine and beer, which can be regarded as an indirect effect of fungi in the arts.– according to whom? This could also be condensed by removing the superfluous "given the cultural relevance [...]" part.
Fungi (yeasts) play a conspicuous role in several religions, for example through fermentation (e.g. wine) and leavening (e.g. bread).– this overlaps significantly with the preceding sentence and could be merged with it. It also needs to be sourced.
According ton– typo.
In the Parable of the Leaven, one of the Parables of Jesus, the growth of the Kingdom of God is akin to the leavening of bread through yeast. [...] However, yeast is associated with corruption in other passages of the New Testament– this is interesting, but it needs to be sourced to reliable sources making the same point in the context of the topic of this article, i.e. fungi in art.
[Mead] has played an important role in the mythology of some peoples. In Norse mythology, for example, the Mead of Poetry, crafted from the blood of Kvasir (a wise being born from the mingled spittle of the Aesir and Vanir deities) would turn anyone who drank it into a poet or scholar.– unsourced.
As one of the evidences they provide– grammar.
as a way to increase mushroom harvesting– as a way to increase the amount harvested, presumably. Not the amount of work done harvesting.
where since recently– MOS:RECENT.
researchers are investigating the effect of electric voltage on mushroom sprouting, showing positive correlations with some species– WP:OFFTOPIC.
According to several interpretations, the legendary figure of Santa Claus is heavily influenced by the fly agaric– not at all what the source says. Millman says
Santa Claus: A celebrated gift giver who may have the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) as one of his ingredients.That's just one interpretation—Millman makes no mention of any other one—and there's a significant difference between "is heavily influenced by" and "may have as one of the ingredients".
anecdotal evidences– grammar. This is also not anecdotal evidence.
The connotation was dispregiative– dispregiative?
There is a conspicuous corpus of literature– odd and rather, yes, conspicuous phrasing.
Although these books are non-fictional, the works are often excellent examples of storytelling and tinkering– that's an opinion stated in WP:WikiVoice.
and are a fundamental source– that's also an opinion.
the growing do-it-yourself community– why describe it as "growing"?
These works are not only an important source but also a way for artists to converge and experiment with fungi.– unencyclopedic in tone. Comes off as promotional. Persuasive writing, really. Also unattributed opinion.
The book [...] offers insights– definitely way too promotional.
Some books proposed speculative or disputed theories on the cultural influence of fungi throughout history, like The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross by John Allegro, and were received critically by fellow mycologists.– why is this here? Basically every field will have some degree of disagreement within it. Is there any strong reason to bring this particular instance up?
The online book club 'MycoBookClub' discusses monthly a selection of mostly non-fiction books on fungi on Twitter.– why bring up an online book club?
Authors of non-fictional books about fungi are often pioneers– MOS:PUFFERY.
contribute to the increased popularity, popularisation [...]– contributing to the increased popularity of something and contributing to the popularisation of the same thing are just two different ways of saying the same thing, making this redundant.
Adaptations of literary fiction into motion pictures follow similar tropes present in science fiction, horror, supernatural, and crime fiction genres.– is that from the cited source? At any rate, this seems rather unsurprising and not necessarily worth mentioning.
the eponymous petroglyphs– how are they eponymous? The documentary is called Pegtymel, the name of the river.
commercially successful– wholly irrelevant MOS:PUFFERY.
released on Netflix– irrelevant detail.
renowned mycologist– MOS:PUFFERY.
the intriguing world of fungi– that's a subjective assessment.
presents the intriguing world of fungi [...] with the use of narration, time-lapse photography, and interviews– these are all rather standard techniques in documentary filmmaking. Is there any particular reason to mention this here?
The documentary covers fungi and not only mushrooms.– conspicuous phrasing. This rather forcefully implies that this is unexpected and a positive.
Recently, new film festivals– MOS:RECENTLY.
Screening ar online or at specific venues.– I'm not entirely sure what this is intended to say, but it appears to have been mistyped.
Most notably– according to whom? This is unattributed opinion stated in WP:WikiVoice.
Most notably are the Fungi Film Festival [...]– grammar.
Radical Mycology author Peter McCoy– is this meant to say that McCoy is the author of a work with the title Radical Mycology, or that McCoy is an author within the field of radical mycology? Either the capitalization or lack of italics is wrong.
often present at the 2022 Fungi Film Festival– often present at a single event? Is this meant to say that it is present in many entries in the 2022 event or that it is recurring in different years?
The commercially successful 2019 documentary Fantastic Fungi [...] Topics and themes often present at the 2022 Fungi Film Festival are personification of mushrooms, experimental/conceptual representation of fungal forms, and utilization of mushrooms for their (hallucinogenic) properties.– not in the cited source.
drew inspiration from Terence McKenna's ' Stoned Ape Theory'– which is what, exactly? This is not particularly informative.
In the Belgian comic franchise The Smurfs, the characters with the same name– poor phrasing. Really, this could all be replaced with just " The Smurfs".
American fantasy and science fiction comic book artist Frank Frazetta illustrated the cover image of the 1964 edition of the novel The Secret People (1935) by John Beynon (pseudonym of John Wyndham), in which fictive 'little people' inhabit areas with giant mushrooms.– presumably the last clause applies to the novel rather than the cover image, so why mention the cover image at all?
Dave Gibbon's comic strip Come into My Cellar is based on Ray Bradbury's short story with the same name.– Bradbury's story is mentioned above, so this seems superfluous.
Game designer Shigeru Miyamoto acknowledged Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland as direct influence for the 'super mushroom' in developing Nintendo's Super Mario video game.– this really buries the lead. The important part is surely the mushrooms appearing in the game, with the Alice in Wonderland inspiration of secondary importance here.
The celebrated video game franchise The Last of Us– MOS:PUFFERY.
wiped off humanity– wiped out humanity, presumably.
turning infected into zombies– this is missing a definite article or a noun.
Further video games where mushrooms appear as health-boosting collectibles or poisonous mushrooms– that's an odd framing. Also poorly phrased.
Zelda: Breth of the Wild– typo.
A music gerne– typo.
A music gerne called Fungi from the British Virgin Islands is defined as a mixture of many styles and instruments.– does this actually have anything to do with fungi, the biological kingdom? According to the linked article, that's not where the name comes from.
The Czech composer and mycologist Václav Hálek (1937-2014) claimed to have created numerous musical works inspired by fungi.– claimed?
Václav Hálek– it is inappropriate to link to a Wikipedia article in a different language without making that obvious to the reader. Use Template:Interlanguage link instead, like this: Václav Hálek .
American composer John Cage (1912-1992) was an enthusiastic amateur mycologist and co-founder the New York Mycological Society.– what's the relevance of this? Being a composer and an amateur mycologist does not in itself imply a connection between the to.
'Fossora' is the feminine declination of the Latin fossore, meaning "she who digs".– what's the relevance of this?
'Fossora' is the feminine declination of the Latin fossore, meaning "she who digs".– the cited source says "it is a word i made up".
feminine declination– the word you're looking for is declension.
The Czech composer and mycologist Václav Hálek [...]– already mentioned.
A non-exhaustive list of songs inspired by mushrooms (fungi) is given below:– why? This is WP:NOTTVTROPES.
made of transparent or opaque glass, although coloured glass was used when needed– that seems to cover most bases. What am I missing?
Fungi enter cuisine mostly as fruiting bodies (mushrooms).– is that really true? Yeasts and molds also have very central roles in cuisine.
mushrooms can be considered a novel culinary trend– according to whom?
The 'Shaggy ink cap' mushroom Coprinus comatus produces spores by deliquescing (liquefying, or melting) its cap into a black ink.– already mentioned above.
it is used in Mexico as the delicacy huitlacoche [...] in Mexico they are highly esteemed as a delicacy, where it is known as huitlacoche– extreme redundancy within the same paragraph, both in terms of repeated information and repeated links.
Huitlacoche is a source of the essential amino acid lysine, which the body requires but cannot manufacture. It also contains levels of beta-glucans similar to, and protein content equal or superior to, most edible fungi.– why discuss the nutritional value here?
Current research on psychoactive mushrooms shows promises for the treatment of mental-health ailments like chronic depression and anxiety.– why on Earth is this article making biomedical claims?
A 'mushroom counterculture' has been often fuelled by eccentric, unorthodox, and unfalsifiable hyphotheses and interpretations of the influence of (hallucinogenic) mushrooms in culture developments [...]– who is making this assertion? I seriously doubt the cited source by McKenna (who is used as an example of this) says this.
McKenna hyphotesis– double typo.
McKenna hyphotesis has been controversial– MOS:CONTROVERSIAL.
Hyphae are the most metabolically active structures of fungi, secreting high amounts of digestive enzymes in the surrounding environment to consume the growth substratum, as well as bioactive metabolites, including substances used in modern medicine ( antibiotic and antimicrobial drugs). Hyphae and mycelia grow by extension and branching, and fungi forming those structures are often referred to as 'filamentous fungi'.– relevance?
Mycelia and hyphae have seldomly been represented, showcased, transformed, or utilized in the traditional arts due to their invisible, ignored, and overlooked lifestyle and appearance.– source?
have seldomly been represented [...] due to their invisible, ignored, and overlooked lifestyle and appearance.– they have seldomly been represented because they are ignored and overlooked?
lifestyle and appearance– "lifestyle"?
enjoying increasing visibility, marketing, commercialization, and endorsement from celebrities– and Wikipedia articles like this one? Joking aside, this comes off as promotional.
In literature and fiction, hyphae and mycelia are considered (if at all) for their intrinsic properties of decomposition, contamination, and decay.– source?
The filamentous, prolific, and fast growth of hyphae and mycelia (like moulds) in suitable conditions and growth media often makes these fungal forms good subject of time-lapse photography.– according to whom?
imagery allegedly inspired by ergotism– if the qualifier "allegedly" is necessary, this doesn't belong. If it isn't necessary, it should be removed. Either way, this needs to be sourced.
Whereas non-fiction books about fungi often (if not always) include hyphae and mycelia, examples of hyphae and mycelia in literary fiction are much rarer in comparison to mushrooms and spores. When these fungal forms are included in work of fiction, they are often associated with elements of rot and decay.– unsourced.
fast, radial growth (also called isodiametric growth, that is, with same speed and size in all directions)– this is mentioned elsewhere and could be condensed significantly even if it weren't.
mycelia and hyphae are often used as time-lapse photography to present filamentous growth and/or decay– source?
its growth plasticity (e.g. the ability to take virtually any shape upon being cast in a desired form)– I believe "i.e." is intended here, rather than "e.g."
vernacularly called– conspicuous phrasing. The usual phrase is "commonly called", or sometimes "colloquially called". A simple "also called" would also do the trick here.
the Stradivarius violin– there are multiple Stradivarius violins, not just one.
produce sounds close to those from the Stradivarius violin– this is an WP:EXCEPTIONAL claim, and as such needs exceptional sourcing.
mixd into– typo.
Current collaborations– MOS:CURRENT.
Luxury fashion brands like Adidas, Stella McCartney, and Hermès are introducing vegan alternatives to leather made from mycelium.– comes off as promotional.
Remarkable evidence– MOS:FLOWERY.
Mycologist Paul Stamets famously wears a hat made of amadou.– famously? That needs to be backed up with reliable sources saying so, and I daresay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPqWstVnRjQ is not a WP:Reliable source.
Fungi has– subject–verb disagreement.
Fungal mycelia are used as leather-like material (also known as pleather, artificial leather, or synthetic leather), including for high-end fashion design products.– already covered above.
cruelty-free– that's a value-laden WP:LABEL.
A patent study covering 2009-2018 highlighted the current patent landscape around mycelial materials based on patents filed or pending.– relevance?
Mushrooms are traditionally the main form of fungi used for direct consumption in the culinary arts.– this is a subtly but significantly different claim than the one I questioned above. This version is much less dubious. That being said, it's not in the cited source.
an enormous variety– inappropriately emphatic language.
beverages such as beer, wine, sake, kombucha, coffee, soy sauce, tofu, cheese, or chocolate– not all of these are beverages.
just to name a few– inappropriately informal. Also redundant to "including".
The Michelin-star restaurant The Alchemist in Copenhagen– mentioning the Michelin star comes off as promotional.
Copenhagen (Danemark)– Denmark.
'mycelium-based seafood'– this quote does not appear in the cited source.
'mycelium-based bacon.'– this quote does not appear in the cited sources. See also MOS:LQ about punctuation placement.
Hapha and mycelium– typo.
gets increased attention in the contemporary art due to its growth and plasticity, and is occasionally the starting point for artworks in the contemporary art– repetitive phrasing.
the biotechnology-relevant fungus Aspergillus niger– why gloss it like that?
freely available at www.color.bio– I would suggest you review Wikipedia's policy on WP:External links.
Examples of fungal spores in the arts are rare due to their invisibility and difficulties to treat and manipulate as working matter.– source?
Notable exceptions are so called 'spore prints,' or glass sculptures by mycologist William Dillon Weston (1899-1953) representing magnified microfungi and spores (ascospores, basidiospores).– this is a general statement, but was presumably meant to be a specific one.
Notable exceptions– MOS:NOTABLE.
' spore prints,'– MOS:LQ.
Often, fungal spores are employed as an agent of infection and decay in literature and the graphic arts, whereas recently they are increasingly used in the contemporary art in a positive or neutral way to reflect about processes of transformation, interaction, decay, circular economy, and sustainability.– the cited source doesn't actually say this.
a flat, white or coloured surface– this is ambiguous. Does it refer to (1) a surface that is flat, and is additionally either white or coloured, or (2) a surface that might be flat, might be white, and might be coloured, but always one of those three?
spores prints– grammar.
Whereas non-fictional books about fungi cover spores in the context of fungal spore formation, dispersal, harvesting, or germination, works of literary fiction involving spores are generally linked to infection and decay, and thus have mostly a negative connotation.– source?
In stories where mushrooms are perceived or represented as threat, spores fulfill the same role.– source?
In the short story Come into My Cellar, by Ray Bradbury, for example, spores are depicted as an alien invasion.– see my earlier comments about this story.
The critically acclaimed and commercially successful video game franchise– MOS:PUFFERY.
by Sony Computer Entertainment– relevance of this detail?
( Part I, released in 2013; downloadable content adds-on The Last of Us: Left Behind, released in 2014; Part II, released in 2020)– seems like unnecessary detail.
An important part of the plot of The Last of Us game franchise revolves around vaccines against the fungal disease; as opposed to vaccination against viral and bacterial pathogens, research on vaccines for human fungal diseases lags behind, with currently no vaccine available against human fungal pathogens.– this goes way WP:OFFTOPIC.
The Last of Us Part II has been awarded best video game of 2020 by The Game Awards.– entirely irrelevant.
A television adaptation by HBO starring among others Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, and Nick Offerman as Bill, is due in January 2023.– outdated.
A television adaptation by HBO– why does it matter that it's by HBO?
starring among others Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, and Nick Offerman as Bill– the character names mean nothing to readers unfamiliar with the franchise. Who stars in the show is also not relevant to the topic of this article.
The comic strip by Dave Gibbon Come into My Cellar is based on Ray Bradbury's short story with the same name, where fungal spores are an alien entity taking over humanity by mind control, especially of children obsessed with growing mushrooms in their home basement.– again with this story. See my earlier comments about it.
An adaptation into Italian appeared for the famous comic series Corto Maltese in 1992 with the name Vieni nella mia cantina.– how does this relate to the topic of this article? It's presented entirely devoid of explanatory context.
in the hands of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae– "in the hands of" is inappropriate here (and when the same phrasing recurs later in the same paragraph). See MOS:CLICHE.
Blue cheese is cheese [...]– you don't say? The second "cheese" is redundant.
Naturalists illustrating their observations often created remarkable work of arts.– that's an opinion.
extremely common– inappropriately emphatic language.
contributed enormously– inappropriately emphatic language.
which is but one of– not particularly encyclopedic in tone.
Other testimonies of the indirect effect of yeasts in the arts are the numerous deities and myths are associated with wine and beer.– anacoluthon.
The field of ethnomycology focuses more on the influence of psychoactive fungi on human culture rather than on aspects such as medicine, food production practices, or cultural influence in the arts.– going a bit WP:OFFTOPIC.
Time-lapses photography– grammar.
Aside from various illustrations, lichens are very seldomly represented in the arts to their slow growth as well as their frailty towards maniputation.– seems to be missing a "due".
maniputation– typo.
Notable examples– MOS:NOTABLE.
Notable examples of yeasts, moulds or lichens in the arts include:– why the list? This is not TV Tropes.
Ernst Häckel– see my earlier comment about the name. This is also unsourced.
dying substances– I think this is meant to say "dyeing substances", i.e. substances used as dyes.
In the science fiction novel Trouble with Lichen (1960) by John Wyndham, a chemical extract from a lichen is able to slow down the aging process, with a profound influence on society– unsourced.
In Stephen King's horror short story Gray Matter (1973), a recluse man living with his son drinks a 'foul beer' and slowly transforms into an inhuman blob-like abomination that craves warm beer and shun light, and transmutes into a fungus-like fictional creature– unsourced.
a comedy which won numerous awards at international film festivals– unnecessary detail, comes off as promotional.
involves 'a young trombone player [...] trying to open an impossible bottle of wine [...] and some mold gets in his way– unpaired quotation mark.
In so-called ' mold paintings,' surfaces of buildings or sculptures are intentionally overgrown with moulds to create visually appealing effects– unsourced.
In so-called ' mold paintings,' surfaces of buildings or sculptures are intentionally overgrown with moulds to create visually appealing effects– stick to spelling it either "mold" or "mould". Switching back and forth looks unprofessional, especially when (as here) within a single sentence.
The musical provides freely available teaching resources– we are not their PR team. See WP:NOTPROMO.
however, during baking, microorganisms present in dough are most probably heat deactivated and thus harmless.– not in the cited source. This violates WP:NPOV by engaging in a dispute rather than describing it.
the homemade yogurt relied on the fermentation properties of lactic acid baceria (e.g. lactobacilli), rather than yeasts (fungi)– that would make it out of scope for this article then, now wouldn't it?
unlike bread, yogurt is a culture of living microorganisms– not in the cited source.
The praxis is thus considered a food hazard by the US Food and Drug Administration.– that's not actually what the source says. It says that the end product would be considered adulterated, and it gives a completely different reason as to why that is.
an artwork which wants to make the audience reflect about the role of yeast biotechnology to confront global issues of contemporary society– that's an appropriate way to describe it for the artist, or an exhibition, or the news media, but it's not appropriate for Wikipedia.
aestic objects– typo.
Physarum polycephalum is a slime mould ( myxomycete) and not a fungus– that would make it out of scope for this article then, now wouldn't it?
Due to its complex problem-solving abilities, the slime mould is used to mimic or investigate human behaviours.– unsourced.
Physarum polycephalum has been shown to exhibit characteristics similar to those seen in single-celled creatures and eusocial insects. For example, a team of Japanese and Hungarian researchers have shown P. polycephalum can solve the shortest path problem. When grown in a maze with oatmeal at two spots, P. polycephalum retracts from everywhere in the maze, except the shortest route connecting the two food sources.– what on Earth does this have to do with the topic of this article, fungi in art? This is neither a fungus nor art.
This indirect influence of fungi in the arts can be broadly classified into three categories:– you really need to get this WP:ANALYSIS from the sources.
Of notable example– MOS:NOTABLE, grammar.
insofar part of their artworks have been likely created under the influence of fungal substances while they also depict the effect of fungal metabolites– this is rather difficult to parse.
represent a treat– a threat, presumably.
damage them by means of mechanical, chemical, or aesthetic damage– damage them by means of damage? That's rather redundant.
damage them by means of mechanical, chemical, or aesthetic damage– mechanical and chemical damage would seem to be the processes by which aesthetic damage occurs. This is mixing apples and oranges, in other words.
An area of applied research focuses on limiting the growth, harm, and health hazard of mould growing inside buildings, often referred to as 'microbiology of the built environment.'– this doesn't seem to be related to art at all?
A recent study– MOS:RECENT.
xerophilic (tolerant to desiccation)– not the most helpful gloss as it still uses rather technical language. If I had to gloss it I might say "can withstand dry conditions".
Microorganisms like fungi are not only considered in the preservation of artworks do due their decaying and contaminating properties.– this appears to have been mistyped. I'm not entirely sure what it was meant to say.
Artists and scientists jointly defined a framework for fruitful collaborations between (fungal) science and the arts.– this uses a large number of words to convey very little information.
The generally low visibility of fungi (other than mushrooms) in the arts can be correlated with the general knowledge and research on fungi, both of which lag behind in comparison with other life science disciplines– this sounds a lot like WP:Original research to me. If it comes from the sources it needs WP:INTEXT attribution, and if it doesn't it needs to be removed.
Mycology was named as a natural science discipline of its own in 1836 only– that doesn't strike me as particularly late, actually. It predates e.g. bacteriology and virology significantly, does it not? For that matter, it predates evolutionary biology. From what I can gather, it also predates ecology.
the fungi kingdom Funga was defined in 1969 only– redundant phrasing aside, the kingdom is called Fungi.
and even today conservation efforts on fungal biodiversity lag behind in comparison to those of species in other kingdoms of life like animals and plants.– overly argumentative in tone.
Currently, in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, only over 500 fungi are included, in comparison to over 58,000 plants and 12,000 insects.– I am unable to verify this from the cited source, though I'm sure the relevant information can be found somewhere on the webpage. However, this is just raw data. The phrasing rather forcefully implies that the number of fungi should be higher, but that's an assessment that unequivocally needs to come from WP:Reliable sources. Also MOS:CURRENT.
Several artistic explorations of fungi have as background, intention or goal the development of sustainable solutions to current environmental issues, or aim at raising awareness on these topics.– this is an example of a sentence that uses far more words than necessary to convey the point. Without even restructuring the sentence, rephrasing it as "Several artistic explorations of fungi
Several artistic explorations of fungi have as background, intention or goal the development of sustainable solutions to current environmental issues, or aim at raising awareness on these topics. These endeavors often involve a multi-disciplinary approach between artists and fungal practitioners, and transform or utilize fungi for the desired goal.—together consist of 49 words, but could be rewritten with as few as 18—"Sustainable solutions to environmental issues is a recurring theme, often used by artists working together with fungal practitioners."—while still conveying the main points (not that this is necessarily the best way to do it). Sometimes less is more, and this article suffers from a lack of brevity.
Occasionally, a commercial outcome beyond the purely artistic approach or experimentation is striven for or achieved.– this is not entirely relevant, and kind of sounds like PR-speak ("we want to make money, but are embarrassed to admit it"),
these approaches fall often within the realm of circular economy.– it's good to have links for terms like this that many readers will not be familiar with, but this is an instance where I think it also needs to be explained in the context where it appears.
Patents to intellectually protect the technological developments are often filed.– I think this goes without saying.
Examples of the use of fungi in sustainability approaches fall within production of fungus-based materials for personal use (vegan leather, house furniture) or as construction materials, or for alternative burial practices (bioremediation), just to name a few.– "Examples [...] fall within [...] just to name a few" is a very redundant phrasing. "Just to name a few" should also be avoided for reasons of being unencyclopedic in tone.
Fungus-derived material from mycelium are being developed– grammar.
Fungus-derived material from mycelium are being developed to create artificial leather for high-end fashion products– this is the third(?) time this is mentioned in the article.
and hold promises to be a sustainable alternative to animal-derived leather– extremely promotional in tone.
by international artists– what does "international artists" mean? It comes off as a euphemism for "foreigners".
More and more artists work with fungi [...]– is that "more and more artists" (an increasing number of artists) or "more and more, artists [...]" (to an increasing extent, artists [...])?
communicating the importance of fungi– WP:POV. This is endorsing that viewpoint.
birth complicacies– birth complications.
There are very few examples of museums entirely devoted to fungi (one example being the Museo del Hongo in Chile).– the first and second parts pull in different directions, so to speak. This would need to be rephrased to not sound incongruent.
relevant examples– "relevant" is a MOS:Word to watch that should be used only with care. It's not outright inappropriate here, but it is redundant.
Several relevant examples include:– as noted several times above, avoid lists like these.
fostering and supporting works able to stimulate dialogues– very promotional.
as for example from– grammar.
enhance the visibility of fungi– promo-speak.
The Fungi Foundation is the first non-governmental organisation dedicated to fungi– being the first is something they would mention to promote themselves, but it is not something that is relevant for Wikipedia to mention here.
signatories include Jane Goodall, Michael Pollan, Paul Stamets, Philipp Ball, Alan Rayner and many more– "include" and "and many more" are redundant to each other. This also comes off basically the same way as the "Hello, I'm Tom Hanks. The US government has lost its credibility, so it's borrowing some of mine." joke from The Simpsons.
and since 2023– it's 2023 now, so I'd say it's way too early to say "since 2023" (at least in this context). It's basically making a promise about the future, which runs afoul of WP:CRYSTAL.
The last report has been published in 2020.– last or latest? It also was published.
GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria
@ CorradoNai: I'm closing this as unsuccessful. The list of issues above is not exhaustive, but a sample of issues I noted while reading through the article. I don't think this can be brought up to WP:Good article standards within a reasonable time frame.
I'll briefly summarize the main issues that keep this from being a WP:Good article in the foreseeable future:
References must be cited in context and on topic.I would expect sources to be used in this way somewhere where original thought is allowed or even encouraged, perhaps an essay or a research paper. Beyond this, a lot of material lacks sources outright and the writing style/tone is often unencyclopedic—sometimes promotional, sometimes argumentative.
I'm afraid this means that my advice basically amounts to "start over and rewrite the entire article".
I gather that you are fairly new to this, and I don't want to discourage you from contributing to Wikipedia. To that end, I'll suggest WP:Peer review as a a more appropriate venue to bring this article to in order to get feedback and suggestions for improving the article (if you do that after addressing the core issues I noted above, you may ping me and I'll weigh in as time permits). You may also wish to consult the WP:Guild of Copy Editors. I would also suggest reading the essay WP:Writing better articles, as it covers a lot of issues that appear throughout this article. I will add some maintenance templates to the article. TompaDompa ( talk) 16:32, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
Wonderful, thank you. I will address point by point. CorradoNai ( talk) 18:07, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
Dear TompaDompa (and everyone helping improving this page), many thanks for the very helpful comments, and in general for helping me become a better Wikipedian. I copy-pasted the comments below, and will answer point by point. I decided not to rewrite the page, because I hope that the structure of the page proves helpful as a framework to present very different examples of artworks within the same scope (how fungi directly and indirectly influence the arts). See also my answers to the general comments below. I hope that having a more precise scope of the article, shortening, and better incoporating sources might do the trick. CorradoNai ( talk) 06:29, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
Use of fungal materials in artistic works, which would seem to suggest that the article is about using fungi to create art (e.g. using fungus-based dyes for paintings) rather than depictions of fungi in art (e.g. paintings of fungi).
== not addressed point by point, but rather as a whole - I believe other WIkipedians also already chipped in, so the lead is quite different from the original now == CorradoNai ( talk) 13:52, 18 May 2023 (UTC)
enormous influence,
extremely various and prolific, and
incredibly diverse. This recurs in the body.
entheogenic (psychoactive)– not synonyms. Either gloss entheogen properly or just say "psychoactive".
Atzec– typo.
belonging to the eukaryotes (nucleated or 'higher' organisms)– what's the relevance of this?
being neglected or ignored– this is an opinion expressed in WP:WikiVoice.
Virtually all areas of the arts have been infiltrated by fungi– overly poetic phrasing.
Artists working with fungi are mostly representing (describing), showcasing (symbolizing), transforming, or utilizing them.– the meaning of this is not obvious. I gather that this is rather important to the overall thesis (for lack of a better word) of the article.
The distinction between these art practices and approaches are not clear-cut– subject–verb disagreement.
use them as narrative, rhetorical, stylistic, or stage element– the last word should be plural.
artists using fungi as transformative agent– the last word should be plural.
often explore the topic of transformation, decay, renewal, sustainability, circularity of matter– is this one topic or several? Either way its ungrammatical.
For 'indirect influence of fungi' it is meant the depiction or description of the effect of fungi– grammar. Also WP:REFERSTO.
the creation of art upon influence of fungi-derived substances– "upon"?
could also be considered an indirect influence of fungi in the art– MOS:WEASEL.
Further important aspects of fungi in art– having the title appear in bold in the fourth paragraph of the lead is way too late. Either include it in the first paragraph (sentence, really) or not at all.
Traditionally, mushrooms have been the main subject for depiction in the arts [...] the enormous plasticity of fungi enables artists to work with different fungal forms to create very diverse artworks.– unsourced.
Artworks representing, showcasing, transforming, and utilizing fungi.– which is which? The rest of the caption doesn't make that clear.
Clockwise from upper left– I'm fairly certain that's not the case. Clockwise from upper left would end with the bottom left image, but the description seems to end with the bottom right one.
1000 BCE-500 AD– use either BCE/CE or BC/AD, but be consistent. Since the rest of the article uses "BCE" consistently, I would suggest simply replacing "AD" with "CE" here. See also MOS:ENDASH.
Artists have often represented or described mushrooms as decorative, naturalistic, or symbolic element. In the graphic arts, architecture, sculpture, and literature, artists mostly represented or showcased mushrooms.– not in the cited sources.
mostly represented or showcased mushrooms– as opposed to mostly doing something else with mushrooms or as opposed to mostly representing/showcasing something else?
Currently, contemporary artists are increasingly– MOS:CURRENT.
Currently, contemporary artists are increasingly including mushrooms in their artworks.– this statement is followed by three sources, two of which verify nothing while the third merely says
Today, according to the curator of a new art exhibition, artists are more interested in fungi than ever before.The statement in this Wikipedia article is both stronger and more specific than the one made by the source.
as for example in– pleonasm.
Early depictions of fungi are petroglyphs from the Bronze Age– this is a general statement, but was presumably meant to be a specific one.
Given the mysterious, seasonal, sudden, and at times inexplicable appearance of mushrooms, as well as the hallucinogenic or toxic effects of some species, their depiction in ethnic, classic and modern art (around 1860–1970) is often associated in Western art with the macabre, ambiguous, dangerous, mystic, obscene, disgusting, alien, or curious in paintings, illustrations, and works of fiction and literature.– this kind of WP:ANALYSIS categorically needs to come from the sources.
Visual artists representing mushrooms have been very prolific throughout history. Whereas examples before the 15th century are rare, examples abound from European visual arts from the 1500 onwards including periods as the Renaissance, the Baroque, Flemish, and Romantic periods.– not in the cited source.
The 'Shaggy ink cap' and the Coprinus comatus– these two are the same, right?
The 'Shaggy ink cap' and the Coprinus comatus and the 'Common ink cap' Coprinus atramentaria mushrooms produce spores by deliquescing (liquefying, or melting) their cap into a black ink, which can be used in drawing, illustration, and calligraphy.– this could and should be condensed. It contains a lot of unnecessary details.
Protocols to produce the 'mushrooms ink' can be found online.– WP:NOTHOWTO.
as in petroglyphs representing mushroom-headed people discovered near the Pegtymel River (Siberia)– already mentioned.
around the world, including in western and non-western works– rather odd phrasing that doesn't provide much information. "Around the world" would seem to imply basically everywhere. Why elaborate further? Why use "western and non-western", specifically? Seems like WP:Systemic bias to me.
more mushrooms are present in artworks from cultures considered to be mycophiles– that hardly seems surprising. I might even expect this to be true by definition.
considered to be mycophiles– by whom?
collects and describe– grammar.
During the Victorian era, numerous scientists drew accurate illustrations of fungi, blurring the border between mycology and the arts.– unsourced.
Art periods and artists are categorized as follows in the registry:– so what? This is clearly out of proportion in this article. It might belong in an article about the registry itself, but not here.
Notable examples– see MOS:Words to watch.
Notable examples of visual artists depicting mushrooms and how they contributed to both mycology and the arts are:– how were these examples chosen? This is also a bad use of a list in a prose article.
how they contributed to both mycology and the arts– contributions to mycology are WP:OFFTOPIC if they don't relate to the arts. The Beatrix Potter entry is an example of going off-topic like this.
Hundreds of his paintings have been digitized by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel (Philadelphia)– superfluous detail.
He is known for his excellent illustrations– that's an opinion.
174 13" by 15"– clunky phrasing. This notation is also to be avoided, see MOS:INCH.
A countless number [...] abound– pleonasm.
Non-fiction books about fungi, especially those involving identification of fungi, includes photographs of fungal species and their fruiting bodies.– subject–verb disagreement.
Work of literary fiction– grammar.
Work of literary fiction involving mushrooms and fungi are often linked to [...]– I'm guessing this is meant to say that the mushrooms and fungi, rather than the fiction itself, are linked to that stuff.
often linked to infection, decay, toxicity, mystery, fantasy, and ambiguity, and thus have mostly a negative connotation– could you provide a quote from the source that verifies this?
In line with the assumption– whose assumption?
During the Victorian era, fungi started to acquire a more playful, childish, or jolly role in works of literary fiction.– not in the cited source.
Several renowned authors have used fungi as plot device.– MOS:PUFFERY.
These include Percy Shelly, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, D.H. Lawrence, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, and more.– "These include" means that the list is non-exhaustive, making "and more" redundant. I also find it questionable that it's necessary to give this many examples.
Lord Alfred Tennyson– I've heard this person referred to as "Alfred, Lord Tennyson", "Lord Tennyson", "Alfred Tennyson", and often just plain "Tennyson", but never "Lord Alfred Tennyson". I don't know if it's strictly speaking incorrect, but it sticks out.
Percy Shelly– typo.
Fungi have been a common trope in the science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy and crime fiction genres. Fungi have a long tradition in science fiction.– repetitive.
In Ray Bradbury's Come into My Cellar– the titles of short stories are presented in "quotation marks", not italics.
alien invasors– typo.
Fungi have been a common trope in the science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy and crime fiction genres. [...] Crime and detective writer Agatha Christie has repeatedly used mushrooms as murder weapon in her crime fiction.– does all of this come from the source cited at the end?
A non-exhaustive list of fictional stories involving mushrooms is given below:– why? This is not TV Tropes.
The quarterly periodical FUNGI Magazine runs a regular feature called Bookshelf Fungi reviewing fiction and non-fiction books on fungi.– unsourced.
In Western culture poetry, as in literature, fungi are historically associated with negative feelings or sentiments, although, together with the rising popularity of fungi, this trend might hold less true in recent years.– this kind of WP:ANALYSIS categorically needs to come from the sources.
The poem The Mushroom (1896) by Emily Dickinson is unsympathetic towards mushrooms. American author of weird horror and supernatural fiction H. P. Lovercraft created a collection of cosmic horror sonnets with fungi as subject called Fungi from Yuggoth (1929–30). Margaret Atwood's poem Mushrooms (1981) explores the topics of the life cycle and nature.– not in the cited source.
True to the observation that Asian cultures are mycophilic, several hundreds of Japanese haiku have as their subject mushrooms and mushroom hunting– not compliant with WP:NPOV. This is endorsing a particular viewpoint. This needs to be given WP:INTEXT attribution to the source that says that (1) Asian cultures are mycophilic and (2) this is reflected in haiku writing.
Numerous haiku have been recently translated into English.– superfluous detail, and MOS:RECENT.
fungi have had an conspicuous influence in mythology– "conspicuous"?
across various latitudes, civilizations, and historical epochs– why latitudes?
has arguably contributed– MOS:EDITORIALIZING.
The distinction between literature, folklore, and myth is not always clear cut, and occasionally open to interpretations.– who says so in this context?
Some writers argue that fungi have inspired numerous myths, and vice versa that many myths can be re-interpreted through the lens of fungal ecology.– do some authors say the former and others the latter, or do the same people say both? This also needs to be sourced.
Juda Iscariot– typo.
Occasionally, the involvement of fungi in myth and folklore is driven by allegory, cultural practices, or popular interpretations.– Unsourced.
For example, given the cultural relevance and prevalence of fermented (alcoholic) beverages throughout history, there are numerous deities associated with wine and beer, which can be regarded as an indirect effect of fungi in the arts.– according to whom? This could also be condensed by removing the superfluous "given the cultural relevance [...]" part.
Fungi (yeasts) play a conspicuous role in several religions, for example through fermentation (e.g. wine) and leavening (e.g. bread).– this overlaps significantly with the preceding sentence and could be merged with it. It also needs to be sourced.
According ton– typo.
In the Parable of the Leaven, one of the Parables of Jesus, the growth of the Kingdom of God is akin to the leavening of bread through yeast. [...] However, yeast is associated with corruption in other passages of the New Testament– this is interesting, but it needs to be sourced to reliable sources making the same point in the context of the topic of this article, i.e. fungi in art.
[Mead] has played an important role in the mythology of some peoples. In Norse mythology, for example, the Mead of Poetry, crafted from the blood of Kvasir (a wise being born from the mingled spittle of the Aesir and Vanir deities) would turn anyone who drank it into a poet or scholar.– unsourced.
As one of the evidences they provide– grammar.
as a way to increase mushroom harvesting– as a way to increase the amount harvested, presumably. Not the amount of work done harvesting.
where since recently– MOS:RECENT.
researchers are investigating the effect of electric voltage on mushroom sprouting, showing positive correlations with some species– WP:OFFTOPIC.
According to several interpretations, the legendary figure of Santa Claus is heavily influenced by the fly agaric– not at all what the source says. Millman says
Santa Claus: A celebrated gift giver who may have the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) as one of his ingredients.That's just one interpretation—Millman makes no mention of any other one—and there's a significant difference between "is heavily influenced by" and "may have as one of the ingredients".
anecdotal evidences– grammar. This is also not anecdotal evidence.
The connotation was dispregiative– dispregiative?
There is a conspicuous corpus of literature– odd and rather, yes, conspicuous phrasing.
Although these books are non-fictional, the works are often excellent examples of storytelling and tinkering– that's an opinion stated in WP:WikiVoice.
and are a fundamental source– that's also an opinion.
the growing do-it-yourself community– why describe it as "growing"?
These works are not only an important source but also a way for artists to converge and experiment with fungi.– unencyclopedic in tone. Comes off as promotional. Persuasive writing, really. Also unattributed opinion.
The book [...] offers insights– definitely way too promotional.
Some books proposed speculative or disputed theories on the cultural influence of fungi throughout history, like The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross by John Allegro, and were received critically by fellow mycologists.– why is this here? Basically every field will have some degree of disagreement within it. Is there any strong reason to bring this particular instance up?
The online book club 'MycoBookClub' discusses monthly a selection of mostly non-fiction books on fungi on Twitter.– why bring up an online book club?
Authors of non-fictional books about fungi are often pioneers– MOS:PUFFERY.
contribute to the increased popularity, popularisation [...]– contributing to the increased popularity of something and contributing to the popularisation of the same thing are just two different ways of saying the same thing, making this redundant.
Adaptations of literary fiction into motion pictures follow similar tropes present in science fiction, horror, supernatural, and crime fiction genres.– is that from the cited source? At any rate, this seems rather unsurprising and not necessarily worth mentioning.
the eponymous petroglyphs– how are they eponymous? The documentary is called Pegtymel, the name of the river.
commercially successful– wholly irrelevant MOS:PUFFERY.
released on Netflix– irrelevant detail.
renowned mycologist– MOS:PUFFERY.
the intriguing world of fungi– that's a subjective assessment.
presents the intriguing world of fungi [...] with the use of narration, time-lapse photography, and interviews– these are all rather standard techniques in documentary filmmaking. Is there any particular reason to mention this here?
The documentary covers fungi and not only mushrooms.– conspicuous phrasing. This rather forcefully implies that this is unexpected and a positive.
Recently, new film festivals– MOS:RECENTLY.
Screening ar online or at specific venues.– I'm not entirely sure what this is intended to say, but it appears to have been mistyped.
Most notably– according to whom? This is unattributed opinion stated in WP:WikiVoice.
Most notably are the Fungi Film Festival [...]– grammar.
Radical Mycology author Peter McCoy– is this meant to say that McCoy is the author of a work with the title Radical Mycology, or that McCoy is an author within the field of radical mycology? Either the capitalization or lack of italics is wrong.
often present at the 2022 Fungi Film Festival– often present at a single event? Is this meant to say that it is present in many entries in the 2022 event or that it is recurring in different years?
The commercially successful 2019 documentary Fantastic Fungi [...] Topics and themes often present at the 2022 Fungi Film Festival are personification of mushrooms, experimental/conceptual representation of fungal forms, and utilization of mushrooms for their (hallucinogenic) properties.– not in the cited source.
drew inspiration from Terence McKenna's ' Stoned Ape Theory'– which is what, exactly? This is not particularly informative.
In the Belgian comic franchise The Smurfs, the characters with the same name– poor phrasing. Really, this could all be replaced with just " The Smurfs".
American fantasy and science fiction comic book artist Frank Frazetta illustrated the cover image of the 1964 edition of the novel The Secret People (1935) by John Beynon (pseudonym of John Wyndham), in which fictive 'little people' inhabit areas with giant mushrooms.– presumably the last clause applies to the novel rather than the cover image, so why mention the cover image at all?
Dave Gibbon's comic strip Come into My Cellar is based on Ray Bradbury's short story with the same name.– Bradbury's story is mentioned above, so this seems superfluous.
Game designer Shigeru Miyamoto acknowledged Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland as direct influence for the 'super mushroom' in developing Nintendo's Super Mario video game.– this really buries the lead. The important part is surely the mushrooms appearing in the game, with the Alice in Wonderland inspiration of secondary importance here.
The celebrated video game franchise The Last of Us– MOS:PUFFERY.
wiped off humanity– wiped out humanity, presumably.
turning infected into zombies– this is missing a definite article or a noun.
Further video games where mushrooms appear as health-boosting collectibles or poisonous mushrooms– that's an odd framing. Also poorly phrased.
Zelda: Breth of the Wild– typo.
A music gerne– typo.
A music gerne called Fungi from the British Virgin Islands is defined as a mixture of many styles and instruments.– does this actually have anything to do with fungi, the biological kingdom? According to the linked article, that's not where the name comes from.
The Czech composer and mycologist Václav Hálek (1937-2014) claimed to have created numerous musical works inspired by fungi.– claimed?
Václav Hálek– it is inappropriate to link to a Wikipedia article in a different language without making that obvious to the reader. Use Template:Interlanguage link instead, like this: Václav Hálek [cs].
American composer John Cage (1912-1992) was an enthusiastic amateur mycologist and co-founder the New York Mycological Society.– what's the relevance of this? Being a composer and an amateur mycologist does not in itself imply a connection between the to.
'Fossora' is the feminine declination of the Latin fossore, meaning "she who digs".– what's the relevance of this?
'Fossora' is the feminine declination of the Latin fossore, meaning "she who digs".– the cited source says "it is a word i made up".
feminine declination– the word you're looking for is declension.
The Czech composer and mycologist Václav Hálek [...]– already mentioned.
A non-exhaustive list of songs inspired by mushrooms (fungi) is given below:– why? This is WP:NOTTVTROPES.
made of transparent or opaque glass, although coloured glass was used when needed– that seems to cover most bases. What am I missing?
Fungi enter cuisine mostly as fruiting bodies (mushrooms).– is that really true? Yeasts and molds also have very central roles in cuisine.
mushrooms can be considered a novel culinary trend– according to whom?
The 'Shaggy ink cap' mushroom Coprinus comatus produces spores by deliquescing (liquefying, or melting) its cap into a black ink.– already mentioned above.
it is used in Mexico as the delicacy huitlacoche [...] in Mexico they are highly esteemed as a delicacy, where it is known as huitlacoche– extreme redundancy within the same paragraph, both in terms of repeated information and repeated links.
Huitlacoche is a source of the essential amino acid lysine, which the body requires but cannot manufacture. It also contains levels of beta-glucans similar to, and protein content equal or superior to, most edible fungi.– why discuss the nutritional value here?
Current research on psychoactive mushrooms shows promises for the treatment of mental-health ailments like chronic depression and anxiety.– why on Earth is this article making biomedical claims?
A 'mushroom counterculture' has been often fuelled by eccentric, unorthodox, and unfalsifiable hyphotheses and interpretations of the influence of (hallucinogenic) mushrooms in culture developments [...]– who is making this assertion? I seriously doubt the cited source by McKenna (who is used as an example of this) says this.
McKenna hyphotesis– double typo.
McKenna hyphotesis has been controversial– MOS:CONTROVERSIAL.
Hyphae are the most metabolically active structures of fungi, secreting high amounts of digestive enzymes in the surrounding environment to consume the growth substratum, as well as bioactive metabolites, including substances used in modern medicine ( antibiotic and antimicrobial drugs). Hyphae and mycelia grow by extension and branching, and fungi forming those structures are often referred to as 'filamentous fungi'.– relevance?
Mycelia and hyphae have seldomly been represented, showcased, transformed, or utilized in the traditional arts due to their invisible, ignored, and overlooked lifestyle and appearance.– source?
have seldomly been represented [...] due to their invisible, ignored, and overlooked lifestyle and appearance.– they have seldomly been represented because they are ignored and overlooked?
lifestyle and appearance– "lifestyle"?
enjoying increasing visibility, marketing, commercialization, and endorsement from celebrities– and Wikipedia articles like this one? Joking aside, this comes off as promotional.
In literature and fiction, hyphae and mycelia are considered (if at all) for their intrinsic properties of decomposition, contamination, and decay.– source?
The filamentous, prolific, and fast growth of hyphae and mycelia (like moulds) in suitable conditions and growth media often makes these fungal forms good subject of time-lapse photography.– according to whom?
imagery allegedly inspired by ergotism– if the qualifier "allegedly" is necessary, this doesn't belong. If it isn't necessary, it should be removed. Either way, this needs to be sourced.
Whereas non-fiction books about fungi often (if not always) include hyphae and mycelia, examples of hyphae and mycelia in literary fiction are much rarer in comparison to mushrooms and spores. When these fungal forms are included in work of fiction, they are often associated with elements of rot and decay.– unsourced.
fast, radial growth (also called isodiametric growth, that is, with same speed and size in all directions)– this is mentioned elsewhere and could be condensed significantly even if it weren't.
mycelia and hyphae are often used as time-lapse photography to present filamentous growth and/or decay– source?
its growth plasticity (e.g. the ability to take virtually any shape upon being cast in a desired form)– I believe "i.e." is intended here, rather than "e.g."
vernacularly called– conspicuous phrasing. The usual phrase is "commonly called", or sometimes "colloquially called". A simple "also called" would also do the trick here.
the Stradivarius violin– there are multiple Stradivarius violins, not just one.
produce sounds close to those from the Stradivarius violin– this is an WP:EXCEPTIONAL claim, and as such needs exceptional sourcing.
mixd into– typo.
Current collaborations– MOS:CURRENT.
Luxury fashion brands like Adidas, Stella McCartney, and Hermès are introducing vegan alternatives to leather made from mycelium.– comes off as promotional.
Remarkable evidence– MOS:FLOWERY.
Mycologist Paul Stamets famously wears a hat made of amadou.– famously? That needs to be backed up with reliable sources saying so, and I daresay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPqWstVnRjQ is not a WP:Reliable source.
Fungi has– subject–verb disagreement.
Fungal mycelia are used as leather-like material (also known as pleather, artificial leather, or synthetic leather), including for high-end fashion design products.– already covered above.
cruelty-free– that's a value-laden WP:LABEL.
A patent study covering 2009-2018 highlighted the current patent landscape around mycelial materials based on patents filed or pending.– relevance?
Mushrooms are traditionally the main form of fungi used for direct consumption in the culinary arts.– this is a subtly but significantly different claim than the one I questioned above. This version is much less dubious. That being said, it's not in the cited source.
an enormous variety– inappropriately emphatic language.
beverages such as beer, wine, sake, kombucha, coffee, soy sauce, tofu, cheese, or chocolate– not all of these are beverages.
just to name a few– inappropriately informal. Also redundant to "including".
The Michelin-star restaurant The Alchemist in Copenhagen– mentioning the Michelin star comes off as promotional.
Copenhagen (Danemark)– Denmark.
'mycelium-based seafood'– this quote does not appear in the cited source.
'mycelium-based bacon.'– this quote does not appear in the cited sources. See also MOS:LQ about punctuation placement.
Hapha and mycelium– typo.
gets increased attention in the contemporary art due to its growth and plasticity, and is occasionally the starting point for artworks in the contemporary art– repetitive phrasing.
the biotechnology-relevant fungus Aspergillus niger– why gloss it like that?
freely available at www.color.bio– I would suggest you review Wikipedia's policy on WP:External links.
Examples of fungal spores in the arts are rare due to their invisibility and difficulties to treat and manipulate as working matter.– source?
Notable exceptions are so called 'spore prints,' or glass sculptures by mycologist William Dillon Weston (1899-1953) representing magnified microfungi and spores (ascospores, basidiospores).– this is a general statement, but was presumably meant to be a specific one.
Notable exceptions– MOS:NOTABLE.
' spore prints,'– MOS:LQ.
Often, fungal spores are employed as an agent of infection and decay in literature and the graphic arts, whereas recently they are increasingly used in the contemporary art in a positive or neutral way to reflect about processes of transformation, interaction, decay, circular economy, and sustainability.– the cited source doesn't actually say this.
a flat, white or coloured surface– this is ambiguous. Does it refer to (1) a surface that is flat, and is additionally either white or coloured, or (2) a surface that might be flat, might be white, and might be coloured, but always one of those three?
spores prints– grammar.
Whereas non-fictional books about fungi cover spores in the context of fungal spore formation, dispersal, harvesting, or germination, works of literary fiction involving spores are generally linked to infection and decay, and thus have mostly a negative connotation.– source?
In stories where mushrooms are perceived or represented as threat, spores fulfill the same role.– source?
In the short story Come into My Cellar, by Ray Bradbury, for example, spores are depicted as an alien invasion.– see my earlier comments about this story.
The critically acclaimed and commercially successful video game franchise– MOS:PUFFERY.
by Sony Computer Entertainment– relevance of this detail?
( Part I, released in 2013; downloadable content adds-on The Last of Us: Left Behind, released in 2014; Part II, released in 2020)– seems like unnecessary detail.
An important part of the plot of The Last of Us game franchise revolves around vaccines against the fungal disease; as opposed to vaccination against viral and bacterial pathogens, research on vaccines for human fungal diseases lags behind, with currently no vaccine available against human fungal pathogens.– this goes way WP:OFFTOPIC.
The Last of Us Part II has been awarded best video game of 2020 by The Game Awards.– entirely irrelevant.
A television adaptation by HBO starring among others Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, and Nick Offerman as Bill, is due in January 2023.– outdated.
A television adaptation by HBO– why does it matter that it's by HBO?
starring among others Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, and Nick Offerman as Bill– the character names mean nothing to readers unfamiliar with the franchise. Who stars in the show is also not relevant to the topic of this article.
The comic strip by Dave Gibbon Come into My Cellar is based on Ray Bradbury's short story with the same name, where fungal spores are an alien entity taking over humanity by mind control, especially of children obsessed with growing mushrooms in their home basement.– again with this story. See my earlier comments about it.
An adaptation into Italian appeared for the famous comic series Corto Maltese in 1992 with the name Vieni nella mia cantina.– how does this relate to the topic of this article? It's presented entirely devoid of explanatory context.
in the hands of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae– "in the hands of" is inappropriate here (and when the same phrasing recurs later in the same paragraph). See MOS:CLICHE.
Blue cheese is cheese [...]– you don't say? The second "cheese" is redundant.
Naturalists illustrating their observations often created remarkable work of arts.– that's an opinion.
extremely common– inappropriately emphatic language.
contributed enormously– inappropriately emphatic language.
which is but one of– not particularly encyclopedic in tone.
Other testimonies of the indirect effect of yeasts in the arts are the numerous deities and myths are associated with wine and beer.– anacoluthon.
The field of ethnomycology focuses more on the influence of psychoactive fungi on human culture rather than on aspects such as medicine, food production practices, or cultural influence in the arts.– going a bit WP:OFFTOPIC.
Time-lapses photography– grammar.
Aside from various illustrations, lichens are very seldomly represented in the arts to their slow growth as well as their frailty towards maniputation.– seems to be missing a "due".
maniputation– typo.
Notable examples– MOS:NOTABLE.
Notable examples of yeasts, moulds or lichens in the arts include:– why the list? This is not TV Tropes.
Ernst Häckel– see my earlier comment about the name. This is also unsourced.
dying substances– I think this is meant to say "dyeing substances", i.e. substances used as dyes.
In the science fiction novel Trouble with Lichen (1960) by John Wyndham, a chemical extract from a lichen is able to slow down the aging process, with a profound influence on society– unsourced.
In Stephen King's horror short story Gray Matter (1973), a recluse man living with his son drinks a 'foul beer' and slowly transforms into an inhuman blob-like abomination that craves warm beer and shun light, and transmutes into a fungus-like fictional creature– unsourced.
a comedy which won numerous awards at international film festivals– unnecessary detail, comes off as promotional.
involves 'a young trombone player [...] trying to open an impossible bottle of wine [...] and some mold gets in his way– unpaired quotation mark.
In so-called ' mold paintings,' surfaces of buildings or sculptures are intentionally overgrown with moulds to create visually appealing effects– unsourced.
In so-called ' mold paintings,' surfaces of buildings or sculptures are intentionally overgrown with moulds to create visually appealing effects– stick to spelling it either "mold" or "mould". Switching back and forth looks unprofessional, especially when (as here) within a single sentence.
The musical provides freely available teaching resources– we are not their PR team. See WP:NOTPROMO.
however, during baking, microorganisms present in dough are most probably heat deactivated and thus harmless.– not in the cited source. This violates WP:NPOV by engaging in a dispute rather than describing it.
the homemade yogurt relied on the fermentation properties of lactic acid baceria (e.g. lactobacilli), rather than yeasts (fungi)– that would make it out of scope for this article then, now wouldn't it?
unlike bread, yogurt is a culture of living microorganisms– not in the cited source.
The praxis is thus considered a food hazard by the US Food and Drug Administration.– that's not actually what the source says. It says that the end product would be considered adulterated, and it gives a completely different reason as to why that is.
an artwork which wants to make the audience reflect about the role of yeast biotechnology to confront global issues of contemporary society– that's an appropriate way to describe it for the artist, or an exhibition, or the news media, but it's not appropriate for Wikipedia.
aestic objects– typo.
Physarum polycephalum is a slime mould ( myxomycete) and not a fungus– that would make it out of scope for this article then, now wouldn't it?
Due to its complex problem-solving abilities, the slime mould is used to mimic or investigate human behaviours.– unsourced.
Physarum polycephalum has been shown to exhibit characteristics similar to those seen in single-celled creatures and eusocial insects. For example, a team of Japanese and Hungarian researchers have shown P. polycephalum can solve the shortest path problem. When grown in a maze with oatmeal at two spots, P. polycephalum retracts from everywhere in the maze, except the shortest route connecting the two food sources.– what on Earth does this have to do with the topic of this article, fungi in art? This is neither a fungus nor art.
== The whole section is deleted from the page == CorradoNai ( talk) 03:50, 15 May 2023 (UTC)
This indirect influence of fungi in the arts can be broadly classified into three categories:– you really need to get this WP:ANALYSIS from the sources.
Of notable example– MOS:NOTABLE, grammar.
insofar part of their artworks have been likely created under the influence of fungal substances while they also depict the effect of fungal metabolites– this is rather difficult to parse.
== The whole section is deleted from the page == CorradoNai ( talk) 03:51, 15 May 2023 (UTC)
represent a treat– a threat, presumably.
damage them by means of mechanical, chemical, or aesthetic damage– damage them by means of damage? That's rather redundant.
damage them by means of mechanical, chemical, or aesthetic damage– mechanical and chemical damage would seem to be the processes by which aesthetic damage occurs. This is mixing apples and oranges, in other words.
An area of applied research focuses on limiting the growth, harm, and health hazard of mould growing inside buildings, often referred to as 'microbiology of the built environment.'– this doesn't seem to be related to art at all?
A recent study– MOS:RECENT.
xerophilic (tolerant to desiccation)– not the most helpful gloss as it still uses rather technical language. If I had to gloss it I might say "can withstand dry conditions".
Microorganisms like fungi are not only considered in the preservation of artworks do due their decaying and contaminating properties.– this appears to have been mistyped. I'm not entirely sure what it was meant to say.
==== The whole section is deleted form the page ==== CorradoNai ( talk) 03:52, 15 May 2023 (UTC) CorradoNai ( talk) 03:52, 15 May 2023 (UTC)
Artists and scientists jointly defined a framework for fruitful collaborations between (fungal) science and the arts.– this uses a large number of words to convey very little information.
The generally low visibility of fungi (other than mushrooms) in the arts can be correlated with the general knowledge and research on fungi, both of which lag behind in comparison with other life science disciplines– this sounds a lot like WP:Original research to me. If it comes from the sources it needs WP:INTEXT attribution, and if it doesn't it needs to be removed.
Mycology was named as a natural science discipline of its own in 1836 only– that doesn't strike me as particularly late, actually. It predates e.g. bacteriology and virology significantly, does it not? For that matter, it predates evolutionary biology. From what I can gather, it also predates ecology.
the fungi kingdom Funga was defined in 1969 only– redundant phrasing aside, the kingdom is called Fungi.
and even today conservation efforts on fungal biodiversity lag behind in comparison to those of species in other kingdoms of life like animals and plants.– overly argumentative in tone.
Currently, in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, only over 500 fungi are included, in comparison to over 58,000 plants and 12,000 insects.– I am unable to verify this from the cited source, though I'm sure the relevant information can be found somewhere on the webpage. However, this is just raw data. The phrasing rather forcefully implies that the number of fungi should be higher, but that's an assessment that unequivocally needs to come from WP:Reliable sources. Also MOS:CURRENT.
Several artistic explorations of fungi have as background, intention or goal the development of sustainable solutions to current environmental issues, or aim at raising awareness on these topics.– this is an example of a sentence that uses far more words than necessary to convey the point. Without even restructuring the sentence, rephrasing it as "Several artistic explorations of fungi
Several artistic explorations of fungi have as background, intention or goal the development of sustainable solutions to current environmental issues, or aim at raising awareness on these topics. These endeavors often involve a multi-disciplinary approach between artists and fungal practitioners, and transform or utilize fungi for the desired goal.—together consist of 49 words, but could be rewritten with as few as 18—"Sustainable solutions to environmental issues is a recurring theme, often used by artists working together with fungal practitioners."—while still conveying the main points (not that this is necessarily the best way to do it). Sometimes less is more, and this article suffers from a lack of brevity.
Occasionally, a commercial outcome beyond the purely artistic approach or experimentation is striven for or achieved.– this is not entirely relevant, and kind of sounds like PR-speak ("we want to make money, but are embarrassed to admit it"),
these approaches fall often within the realm of circular economy.– it's good to have links for terms like this that many readers will not be familiar with, but this is an instance where I think it also needs to be explained in the context where it appears.
Patents to intellectually protect the technological developments are often filed.– I think this goes without saying.
Examples of the use of fungi in sustainability approaches fall within production of fungus-based materials for personal use (vegan leather, house furniture) or as construction materials, or for alternative burial practices (bioremediation), just to name a few.– "Examples [...] fall within [...] just to name a few" is a very redundant phrasing. "Just to name a few" should also be avoided for reasons of being unencyclopedic in tone.
Fungus-derived material from mycelium are being developed– grammar.
Fungus-derived material from mycelium are being developed to create artificial leather for high-end fashion products– this is the third(?) time this is mentioned in the article.
and hold promises to be a sustainable alternative to animal-derived leather– extremely promotional in tone.
by international artists– what does "international artists" mean? It comes off as a euphemism for "foreigners".
More and more artists work with fungi [...]– is that "more and more artists" (an increasing number of artists) or "more and more, artists [...]" (to an increasing extent, artists [...])?
communicating the importance of fungi– WP:POV. This is endorsing that viewpoint.
birth complicacies– birth complications.
There are very few examples of museums entirely devoted to fungi (one example being the Museo del Hongo in Chile).– the first and second parts pull in different directions, so to speak. This would need to be rephrased to not sound incongruent.
relevant examples– "relevant" is a MOS:Word to watch that should be used only with care. It's not outright inappropriate here, but it is redundant.
Several relevant examples include:– as noted several times above, avoid lists like these.
fostering and supporting works able to stimulate dialogues– very promotional.
as for example from– grammar.
enhance the visibility of fungi– promo-speak.
The Fungi Foundation is the first non-governmental organisation dedicated to fungi– being the first is something they would mention to promote themselves, but it is not something that is relevant for Wikipedia to mention here.
signatories include Jane Goodall, Michael Pollan, Paul Stamets, Philipp Ball, Alan Rayner and many more– "include" and "and many more" are redundant to each other. This also comes off basically the same way as the "Hello, I'm Tom Hanks. The US government has lost its credibility, so it's borrowing some of mine." joke from The Simpsons.
and since 2023– it's 2023 now, so I'd say it's way too early to say "since 2023" (at least in this context). It's basically making a promise about the future, which runs afoul of WP:CRYSTAL.
The last report has been published in 2020.– last or latest? It also was published.
— Preceding unsigned comment added by CorradoNai ( talk • contribs)
First, I want to commend the article creator, CorradoNai for this ambitious project and for their time devoted to the subject and the desire to improve the encyclopedia. Hat’s off! Second, here are some issues that immediately jump out (sorry if some of these are redundant with the GA review above):
In general, Fungi in art is trying to do too much in one article and is much too sprawling and therefore very hard to follow. The article is trying to cover visual art, literature, cinema/TV, performing arts, comic books, video games, music, architecture, sculpture (which should be grouped with visual art), culinary art, contemporary art (which should be grouped with visual art), games, counterculture (which doesn’t seem to belong in the arts at all), graphic arts (which should be grouped with visual art), etc. It's trying to cover all these areas of knowledge across global geographic locations, and temporal historical and contemporary eras, but the organization of this seems fragmented. Some thoughts/critique regarding improvements:
1) The article is trying to do too many things, it would work better as multiple separate articles with a “See also” section that points to the related articles. The content would work much better as separate articles, for example:
2) The article jumps around between various fungal forms during the growth and fruiting cycle (mushrooms, mycelia/hyphae, spores) as part of its organizational structure which I don’t think is important to our general readership.
3) The article is too broad, yeasts, moulds and lichens don’t seem to belong here although they may be/are related, it’s just too confusing.
Improve the sourcing. The source-quality scripts, Novem Linguae’s “CiteHighlighter” and Headbomb’s “Unreliable” are revealing several red, orange and yellow highlighted sources, for example: Atlas Obscura (blog, however an interesting one), Siberian Times, numerous YouTube links used as sources, Vice, Mushroom Hour (streaming site), Evocative (commercial sales site), Forbes (contributor), several IMDb “sources”, FungiFlowsFun, Vice, Cosmopolitan, Times of India, Flossora, Huffington Post, and various primary sources or user-submitted content, etc. I think only high-quality sources should be used, and all of these lower-quality sources should be removed or replaced. See WP:RS for more information on what constitutes a reliable source.
Way too many External links, these should be kept to a minimum, see WP:EL for the guidance on External links. Currently there are 33, I suggest cutting these back to about 5 of the most important high-quality links.
In general, I think the article has too many examples, which seems to be contrary to the creator's wishes to add more examples. With all due respect, Wikipedia is not a hub for people to share their work and for other to be inspired
, that is what social media and fan-sites are for. I think the article should be trimmed such that only the most important examples are included (and are highly cited in independent, verifiable RS's) .
Thanks again for creating the article, I look forward to seeing how it evolves. Netherzone ( talk) 00:42, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
Maybe just a new title would be enough to fix this, "Fungi in art and popular culture" (art includes paintings and statues, not television show, films, etc.) No need to start over when so much is already written and researched. Randy Kryn ( talk) 13:03, 24 June 2023 (UTC)
This was a fork of mushrooms in art which already existed by CorradoNai because they didn't know how to move an article. It has now become an in popular culture article which we don't need. Suggest merging whatever is salvageable back to mushrooms in art and keeping it focused. The current version reads like a Wikipedia article from 2004. The site has changed a lot during that time. Viriditas ( talk) 23:05, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
extremely generous. Netherzone ( talk) 18:50, 13 December 2023 (UTC)
four separate articles in the lead section alone. It's very confusing that there is so much packed into this article. As written it is not functioning well as a BROADTOPIC article. Netherzone ( talk) 17:20, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
To start clean up and trimming, I will be moving the entire section on Mushrooms to the talk page, and write a short summary (leaving the link to the main article on Mushrooms in art intact). That content can then be moved by anyone from this talk page to the Mushrooms in art article. Netherzone ( talk) 21:49, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
NOTE: Moving content and references here from articlespace so it can be used to improve the Mushrooms in art as well as providing a resource here if there are additional or better examples to use in the summary. Any citation errors this may have caused will/can be fixed in future edits.
Contemporary artists are more interested in fungi than ever before. [4]
Given the mysterious, seasonal, sudden, and at times inexplicable appearance of mushrooms, as well as the hallucinogenic or toxic effects of some species, their depiction in ethnic, classic and modern art (around 1860–1970) is often associated in Western art with the macabre, ambiguous, dangerous, mystic, obscene, disgusting, alien, or curious in paintings, illustrations, and works of fiction and literature. [5] British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in his novel Sir Nigel: relevant?
In Asian or folk art, mushrooms are generally depicted in a more positive or mystical way than in Western art. [7] [8] [9]
Visual artists representing mushrooms have been very prolific throughout history. The Registry of Mushrooms in Works of Art, from the North American Mycological Association, curates an extensive virtual collection of mushrooms in the visual arts. [10] According to the registry, examples before the 15th century are rare, thus examples abound from European visual arts from 1500 onwards are the focal point. The registry includes periods such as the Renaissance, the Baroque, Flemish, and Romantic periods. [10]
The shaggy ink cap ( Coprinus comatus) and the common ink cap ( Coprinus atramentaria) mushrooms produce black ink which is used in drawing, illustration, and calligraphy. [11] [12]
Mushrooms have been found in art traditions around the world, including in western and non-western works. [13] Ranging throughout those cultures, works of art that depict mushrooms can be found in ancient and contemporary times. Often, symbolic associations can also be given to the mushrooms depicted in the works of art. For instance, in Mayan culture, mushroom stones have been found that depict faces in a dreamlike or trance-like expression, [14] which could signify the importance of mushrooms giving hallucinations or trances. Another example of mushrooms in Mayan culture deals with their codices, some of which might have depicted hallucinogenic mushrooms. [15] Other examples of mushroom usage in art from various cultures include the Pegtymel petroglyphs of Russia and Japanese Netsuke figurines. [13]
Examples of mushrooms being depicted in contemporary art are also prevalent. For example, a contemporary Japanese piece depicts baskets of matsutake mushrooms laid atop bank notes, signifying the association of mushrooms and prosperity. [13] Other examples of contemporary art depicting fungi include Anselm Kiefer's Über Deutschland and Sonja Bäumel's Objects not static and silent but alive and talking. [16] These contemporary works often outline themes greatly undercurrent in modern times, themes such as sustainable living, new materials, and ethical considerations associated with the science of fungi and biotechnologies. [16] In fact, working with fungi allows contemporary artists to create art that is interactive and performative. [17]
Mushroom symbolism has also appeared in Christian paintings. The panel painting by Hieronymus Bosch, The Haywain Triptych, is considered the first depiction of mushroom in modern art. [18] Another triptych by Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, depicts scenes very similar to those experienced under the effects of psychoactive mushrooms. [19] In fact, when considering the mushroom of Amanita muscaria, artistic representations throughout the ages show the association it has with psychotropic properties, being represented as being used for social, religious, and therapeutic purposes. [19]
Artists, painters, illustrators, naturalists, and scientists have depicted mushrooms in their artworks for millennia. Edible species, such as Caesar's mushroom ( Amanita caesarea) and the King bolete ( Boletus edulis), are more commonly depicted than toxic ones. Mushrooms abound in Italian, Flemish, Germanic, and Dutch Baroque landscapes and still lifes. Landscape paintings involving mushrooms occasionally depict mushroom or truffle hunting. [10]
Whereas historical British artworks tend to be considered to be influenced by a 'mycophobe' attitude, 19th-century Victorian fairy paintings depicting imaginary scenes involving fairies and other fantastic creatures often featured mushrooms. A great number of Victorian-era illustrators and children-book authors depicted mushrooms in their artworks, including Beatrix Potter, Hilda Boswell, Molly Brett, Arthur Rackham, Charles Robinson, and Cicely Mary Barker. [5]
Visual artists who depicted mushrooms include:
Amateur and professional photographs of mushrooms abound on the Internet. Non-fiction books about fungi, especially those involving the identification of fungi, often include photographs of fungal species and their fruiting bodies. The book by Scott Chimileski and Roberto Kolter Life at the Edge of Sight: A Photographic Exploration of the Microbial World showcases 'the invisible world waiting in plain sight,' including fungi. [29] Since 2005, the North American Mycological Association (NAMA) organises an annual Photography Art Contest on mushrooms and fungi. [30] [31]
Works of literary fiction involving mushrooms and fungi are often linked to infection, decay, toxicity, mystery, fantasy, and ambiguity, and thus have mostly a negative connotation. [5] Examples of mushrooms depicted or involved in a positive way include:
In line with the assumption by Robert Gordon Wasson and Valentina Pavlovna Wasson that Russian society traditionally has more affinity to mushrooms, [19] a scene of mushroom foraging in Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is associated with love, family, and a sense of commonality. [19] [5] During the Victorian era, fungi started to acquire a more playful, childish, or jolly role in works of literary fiction. [5] The author, artist, illustrator, and mycologist Beatrix Potter created meticulous and accurate illustrations of mushrooms, including in her children-book series of Peter Rabbit. [5]
Authors who have used fungi as a plot device include: [35]
Fungi are a common trope in science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy and crime fiction. In Ray Bradbury's " Come into My Cellar", mushrooms are alien invaders threatening society. The short story is one of the rare examples in which several forms of fungi appear (spores and mushrooms): In the story, an alien form of spores from fungi lands on Earth and compels humans, and kids in particular, to grow mushrooms and infect more persons, thus using humans as a medium of propagation of fungi through mind control. [36] Fungi have occasionally appeared in the murder mystery literature due to their toxicity. Crime and detective writer Agatha Christie has used mushrooms as murder weapons in her crime fiction. [5]
The use of (toxic) mushrooms in fiction does not often reflect reality, either because a misidentified species is used (for example, a non-toxic one), because the preparation or intake of the toxic is wrong (for example, when not enough toxin is present, or when it should be deactivated by cooking), or because the progress of poisoning is unrealistic (for example, if the toxin kills too quickly). [6] [37]
The "Bad Bug Bookclub" at Manchester Metropolitan University is a regular book club run by Joanna Verran that discusses literary works on microorganisms, including fungi. [38] The quarterly periodical FUNGI Magazine runs a column called Bookshelf Fungi reviewing fiction and non-fiction books on fungi.
Similar to in Western literature, fungi in Western culture poetry are often associated with negative feelings or sentiments. The poem The Mushroom (1896) by Emily Dickinson is unsympathetic towards mushrooms. American author of weird horror and supernatural fiction H. P. Lovecraft created a collection of cosmic horror sonnets with fungi as subjects called Fungi from Yuggoth (1929–30). Margaret Atwood's poem Mushrooms (1981) explores the topics of the life cycle and nature. failed verification The poem by Neil Gaiman, The Mushroom Hunters, is a poem touching, through the lens of mushroom hunting throughout history, on the topics of womanhood, human creation, and destruction. The poem was written for 'Universe in Verse,' a festival combining science with poetry, and won the Rhysling Award for best long poem in 2017. The poem features in a short animated video with the voice-over of Amanda Palmer. [39]
Several hundred Japanese haiku are about mushroom hunting. Many of them were written by poets of the Nara, Edo and Meiji periods, [40] such as:
Through storytelling and oral tradition, fungi have influenced mythology, folklore, and religions across civilizations and historical periods. [6] The psychoactive properties of certain fungi have contributed to the involvement of fungi in myth and folklore. [41] In her essay Jesus if a Fungal God, author Sophie Strand writes:
There are numerous deities associated with wine and beer, which is an indirect effect of fungi in the arts. Fungi play a role in several religions, for example through fermentation (e.g. wine) and leavening (e.g. bread). In the Parable of the Leaven, one of the Parables of Jesus, the growth of the Kingdom of God is akin to the leavening of bread through yeast. According to Matthew 13:33 (and, similarly, to Luke 13:20-21):
However, yeast is associated with corruption in other passages of the New Testament, as in Luke 12:1:
Some scholars argue that the Egyptian God of the afterlife Osiris is a personification of entheogenic mushrooms. As evidence, they indicate that Egyptian crowns are shaped like primordia of Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms. The Egyptian tale known as Cheops and the Magicians illustrates the growth of mushrooms on barley. [45] In the Chinese classic tale The Mountain and the Sea, the soul of a young woman becomes a mushroom as a symbol of immortality. In Lithuanian and Baltic mythology, fungi are considered the fingers of Velnias, the God of the underworld, reaching up from the underground to feed the poor. [6] In Slovenia, there is a folk ritual to roll on the ground during thunder as a way to increase the amount of mushrooms harvested. [46] Baltic and Ugric religions include mushroom elements, including a "Mother of Mushrooms". The popular tale The War of the Mushrooms is told in several Slavic cultures. (After the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, an exhibition at the Ukrainian Museum in New York revisited the classic story in light of current events. [47]) The supernatural being Baba Yaga in Slavic folklore is often associated with mushrooms. In some Russian tales, it often appears as a villainous wizard called Mukhomor, literally 'poison mushroom,' which is assumed to be derived from the fly agaric. [8] [48]
The fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is a mushroom with characteristic red cap and white dots and has greatly infiltrated folklore with mainstream popularity.
According to several interpretations, the legendary figure of Santa Claus may have been influenced by the fly agaric; evidence includes the use by Saami shamans in the Lapland region, who would visit the homes of people by reindeer-drawn sleds and enter through the chimney when the entrance door was stuck by snowfalls; the fondness of reindeers in eating fly agaric mushrooms; the belief by Saami people that whoever eats an Amanita muscaria will resemble it, becoming among other things, plump and reddish; and the sense of flying that consumption of fly agaric might induce. [49]
The stinkhorn Phallus indusiatus (or "veiled lady") has entered folklore across many cultures, probably due to its peculiar shape. In French, P. indusiatus is commonly called le satyre voilé ('the veiled satyr,' from the male nature spirit in Greek mythology). According to ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson, P. indusiatus was consumed in Mexican divinatory ceremonies on account of its suggestive shape. On the other side of the globe, New Guinea natives consider the mushroom sacred. [50] In Nigeria, the mushroom is one of several stinkhorns given the name Akufodewa by the Yoruba people. The name is derived from a combination of the Yoruba words ku ("die"), fun ("for"), ode ("hunter"), and wa ("search"), and refers to how the mushroom's stench can attract hunters who mistake its odour for that of a dead animal. [51] The Yoruba have been reported to have used it as a component of a charm to make hunters less visible in times of danger. In other parts of Nigeria, they have been used in the preparation of harmful charms by ethnic groups such as the Urhobo and the Ibibio people. The Igbo people of east-central Nigeria called stinkhorns éró ḿma, from the Igbo words for "mushroom" and "beauty". [52]
Jews have a long tradition of eating mushrooms, which are considered Kosher in Jewish dietary law, and mushrooms have been referred to as "Jew's Meat" at least in parts of current Germany (Rhineland area), where the term is used as a dialect term for the German "Pilz" according to the Rheinisches Wörterbuch . [53] Mushrooms have been used as an instrument for anti-Semitic discrimination or propaganda over the centuries. This has a disparaging connotation, especially during the Middle Ages, when mushrooms were considered toxic and disgusting. In the infamous 1938 children-book Der Giftpilz ( transl. The poisonous mushroom) from Nazi Germany, Jews are depicted as poisonous and difficult to distinguish from ' Gentiles'. [16]
There is a large corpus of literature on mushrooms, including foraging, identifying, growing, and cultivating fungi. The book The Mushroom at the End of the World by Chinese-American anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing on matsutake mushrooms offers insights into the cultural relevance and the significance of fungi for modern society, circularity, and decay. [54] Authors of non-fictional books about fungi contribute to the increased popularity and development of mycology, fungal ecology, mycoremediation, fungal conservation, biocontrol, medicinal fungi, mushroom gathering and identification, and fungal research. [55] [56] [57] [58]
Adaptations of literary fiction about fungi into motion pictures include the 2016 British post-apocalyptic science fiction horror movie The Girl with All the Gifts, based on the novel with the same title; and the 1963 Japanese horror film Matango (マタンゴ) directed by Ishirō Honda, partially based on William Hope Hodgson's short story The Voice in the Night (1907). The documentary Fantastic Fungi (2019), primarily led by mycologist Paul Stamets, presents the world of fungi using time-lapse photography. [59] The documentary The Mushroom Speaks (2001) by Marion Neumann covers topics such as decay, bioremediation, and symbiosis by following scientists, experts, and fungal pioneers. [60]
Film festivals dedicated to fungi include the Fungi Film Festival (since 2021), by Radical Mycology author Peter McCoy; [61] and the UK Fungus Day Film Festival (since 2022), by the British Mycological Society. [62]
The American stand-up comedian and satirist Bill Hicks drew inspiration from Terence McKenna's ' Stoned Ape Theory' (that psilocybin was crucial in the development of human nature [63]) in his 1993 show Revelation. [6] [64]
In The Smurfs, smurfs inhabit houses resembling mushrooms. American fantasy and science fiction comic book artist Frank Frazetta illustrated the cover image of the 1964 edition of the novel The Secret People (1935) by John Beynon (pseudonym of John Wyndham), in which fictive 'little people' inhabit areas with giant mushrooms. In Nintendo's Super Mario video game, the 'super mushroom' helps the character grow in size. [5] The video game franchise The Last of Us is set in a post-apocalyptic United States, after spores of a mutant fungus wiped out humanity, turning infected people into zombies. Other video games where mushrooms appear include Skyrim (2011), Stardew Valley (2016), and Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017). [65]
Mushrooms have an influence on music as a subject, cultural reference, or medium for music creation. Numerous musicians, bands, composers, and lyricists mentioned or drew inspiration from fungi. Music can be created utilizing fungi, as in the process of bio-sonification. American composer John Cage (1912–1992) was an enthusiastic amateur mycologist and co-founder of the New York Mycological Society who often merged his two passions in his artworks. [66]
Numerous musicians, bands, composers, and lyricists mentioned or drew inspiration from fungi, like the Israeli psychedelic trance band Infected Mushroom, the US heavy metal band Mushroomhead, Russian romantic composer Modest Mussorgsky's (1839-1881) song Gathering Mushrooms, Igor Stravinsky's (1882-1971) How the Mushrooms went to War, and many more. [6] In Women Gathering Mushrooms, the musicologist Louis Sarno (1954-2017) recorded women from the Central Africa Mbenga pygmy tribe of the Aka (also Biaka, Bayaka, Babenzele) sideclinging while collecting mushrooms, resulting in a polyphonic composition. According to mycologist and author Merlin Sheldrake, the activity of the gatherers above ground mirrors the fungal life below ground, as "mycelium is polyphony in bodily form". [67] Icelandic avant-garde musician Björk's 2022 album Fossora (including tracks such as Mycelia, Sorrowful Soil, and Fungal City) is referred to as her "mushroom album". [68] 'Fossora' can be translated from Latin into "she who digs". [69] [70] The rap artist 'FungiFlows' composes lyrics inspired by fungi and mushrooms while wearing a fly-agaric-shaped hat. [71] The Czech composer and mycologist Václav Hálek (1937–2014) is said to have composed over 1,500 symphonies inspired by fungi, including the composition called Mycosymphony. [6] [72]
A non-exhaustive list of songs inspired by mushrooms (fungi) is given below:
Fungi are occasionally a direct medium for the creation of music. With the use of sonification and synthezisers, musicians and bioartists are able to create sounds and music by converting mushrooms' bioelectric signals. [73] [74] [75] The 'Nanotopia Midnight Mushroom Music' is a radio station devoted to streaming mushroom-generated music. Some artists creating music by sonicating mushrooms note that different mushrooms produce different sounds: for example, Ganoderma lucidum produces melodic sounds, while Pleurotus ostreatus produces constant sounds. [76]
In architecture and sculpture, mushrooms are mostly represented or showcased. Mushrooms are carved in buildings or depicted in sculptures or potteries, like pre-Columbian pottery mushrooms from Mesoamerica. [77] [78] At the entrance of Park Güell by Catalan modernist architect Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926), the Porter's Lodge pavilion features a lookout tower with a mushroom-shaped dome, probably inspired by Amanita muscaria or by stinkhorns. [79] [80] The sculpture Triple Mycomorph by Bernard Reynolds (1915–1997) at Christchurch Mansion holds a resemblance with the stinkhorn mushroom Phallus indusiatus. [81] Mushrooms are occasionally showcased by artists who collect, manipulate, preserve, and exhibit them, as in the 'Mind The Fungi' exhibition (2019-2020) at Futurium in Berlin (Germany). [82] [83] [84]
The mycologist William Dillon Weston (1899-1953; sometimes also spelled Dillon-Weston [85]) created glass sculptures of microfungi, mostly plant pathogens, to fight bouts of insomnia. The artworks represent either magnified fungi (usually up to 400X times for fungi; up to 1200X for spores) or real-size plants affected by fungi (like in Ustilago maydis and Phytophthora infestans) and are made mostly of transparent or opaque glass. The sculptures are mostly between 5–20 cm in size and often do not have a base and stand on the mycelium. [86] Almost a hundred glass sculptures are conserved at the Whipple Museum in Cambridge (UK). Fungi represented are among others species from the genera Alternaria, Botrytis, Penicillium, Cordyceps, Sclerotinia, Fusarium, Puccinia as well as spores ( ascospores, basidiospores). [87] [88] The other known example of glass sculptures representing (among others) fungi is the Blaschka Glass Flowers at Harvard Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts (US). [87]
Fungi enter cuisine mostly as fruiting bodies (mushrooms), yeasts, or moulds. Mushrooms are a source of protein, a staple in many cultures and cuisines, and a common ingredient in many recipes worldwide. The North American Mycological Association (NAMA) hosts a series of resources to encourage all aspects of 'mycophagy.' Most mushrooms sold commercially are the button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), commonly known as champignons. Many mushrooms, including some coveted in haute cuisine, like truffles and boletus, cannot be cultivated and need to be harvested. Due to their dietary properties and their suitability as a meat substitute, mushrooms can be considered a novel trend, including the cultivation and consumption of species that only recently became popular in cooking, like Cordyceps. [89] [90] [91] Many fungi are considered delicacies in cuisine and gastronomy. Truffles, which are occasionally confused with tubers (storage organs in plants, like potatoes), are subterranean fruiting bodies (that is, mushrooms that grow below ground) of certain fungi belonging to the genera Tuber, Geopora, Peziza, Choiromyces, and others. Truffles have developed a distinctive aroma as a spore-dispersion strategy: Instead of relying on wind and other mechanical means, truffles attract animals that eat them and carry their spores to new locations after defecation. [11] Both the mushroom and the black ink of C. comatus and Coprinopsis atramentaria (the 'Common ink cap') are edible, but adverse effects might be felt if consumed together with alcohol. For this reason, C. atramentaria is also called "tippler's bane". [6]
Contemporary artworks involving fungi usually handle or utilize mycelia, yeasts, and other fungal forms rather than mushrooms. Fungi are occasionally used conceptually (that is, to communicate their capabilities and potential). [92] The video and light artist Philipp Frank creates so-called 'projection mapping' by casting light effects on mushrooms growing in nature in the 'Funky Funghy' project. [93] [94]
Plant pathology scientist Lisa Vaillancourt at the University of Kentucky developed a 'Fungal Mating Game' based on standard card decks as an educational tool for students to better understand the process and concept of fungal mating using the mating of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast), Neurospora crassa, Ustilago maydis, and Schizophyllum commune as an example. The game can be played both collaboratively and competitively. [95] [96]
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I've removed an excessively long list of External Links, leaving one important one there. The others are found below.
Netherzone ( talk) 18:42, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
This should be a separate article, Yeasts, molds and lichens in art or some sort of similar name.
Many fungi do not reproduce and disperse by spores. Instead, they live as single cells and reproduce by budding or fission as in yeasts, or live in a symbiosis with an algal or cyanobacterial partner as in lichens. Despite being unicellular, yeasts can reproduce sexually by mating and can occasionally grow in a filamentous way. [1] Moulds do form spores ('asexual spores') but no mushrooms, and grow into filaments (hyphae and mycelia) which thrive in moist environments and spoil food. Moulds, like those which spoil food, are major natural producers of antibiotics, like penicillin.
Yeasts, moulds, and lichens did not enter into the arts very often and their direct influence in the arts remains modest. Indirectly, yeasts have influenced art, as alcohol fermentation has contributed to different cultures around the globe and across time; in La traviata (1853) by Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, for example, one of the best-known opera melodies is ' Libiamo ne' lieti calici' (in English, translated into "Let's drink from the joyful cups"), which is one of numerous brindisi (toast) hymn. Other testimonies of the indirect effect of yeasts in the arts are the numerous deities and myths associated with wine and beer. Yeasts and moulds are often an agent of decay and contamination in the arts, whereas recently they are increasingly used in contemporary art in a positive or neutral way to reflect on processes of transformation, interaction, decay, circular economy, and sustainability. [2] [3]
Examples of yeasts, moulds or lichens in the arts include:
The musical theatre show The Mould That Changed the World is a show running both in the US (in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia) and the UK (in Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland) which centers around the life and legacy of Alexander Fleming, the Scottish discoverer of the antibiotic penicillin and 1945 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine. [15] [16] Alexander Fleming discovered in 1928 during his work as bacteriologist that bacteria growing on a Petri dish were inhibited by a mould contamination, namely from a fungus of the genus Penicillium, from which the antibiotic name 'penicillin' derives. The story involves jumps in time to highlight the legacy of the discovery of antibiotics and is partly set during the Great War, when Alexander Fleming served as a private, as well as the personification of some characters (e.g. Mother Earth). The musical has been developed for educational purposes to raise awareness against the tremendous, worldwide threat that the rise of antimicrobial resistance poses. [17] [18] The musical provides teaching resources [15] and has been developed with the participation of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC). [16] The musical choir is composed of both professional singers and actors as well as health care professionals, lab technicians, and scientists, and is an example of an artistic project merging science and the arts. [15]
The dance contest for scientists called ' Dance your Ph.D.' sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an annual competition established in 2008 encouraging communication and education of complex scientific topics through interpretative dance. All scientific fields and areas of research are covered ( biology, chemistry, physics, and social science), and several contestant entries involved fungi, including some winners. The 2014 winner was plant pathologist and aerial acrobat Uma Nagendra from the University of Georgia (Athens) with Plant-Soil Feedbacks After Severe Tornado Damage, a trapeze-circus dance representing the effect of extreme environmental events (like tornadoes) on tree seedlings and the positive effect those events can have with regard to withstanding phytopathogenic fungi. [19] The 2022 winner was Lithuanian scientist Povilas Šimonis from Vilnius University with Electroporation of Yeast Cells, a dance illustrating the effect of electroporation (a method involving pulses of electricity to deactivate cells, or make them more porous and prone to acquire extracellular DNA, a crucial step in genetic engineering) on yeasts. [20]
In the contemporary arts, works involving fungi are often interactive and/or performative and tend to transform and utilize fungi rather than merely represent and showcase them. [21] In her work, Myconnect (2013), bioartist Saša Spačal invites the audience to interact with the artwork, involving Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) or Oyster mushrooms (from the genus Pleurotus), which takes the form of a capsule connecting the human with the fungus on a sensory level. [21] Bioartists use yeasts to provoke a reflection on genetic engineering. Slovenian intermedia artist Maja Smrekar's created yoghurt using genetically-modified yeast with a gene from the artist herself in Maya Yoghurt (2012). [22] In 2015, the blogger and feminist Zoe Stavri baked sourdough bread using yeast she isolated from her own vaginal yeast infection using a Dildo, which she then mixed with flour and water and let leaven, and finally ate. [23] [24] [25] The activity, which she documented both on her blog posts and on social media, tagging it with the hashtag #cuntsourdough, caused a lot of discussion on social media, including repulsion, hate messages, and food safety concerns, as the practice did not involve axenic isolation of the leavening yeast; however, during baking, microorganisms present in the dough are most probably heat deactivated and thus harmless. [23] As the activist herself noted: "People have been making and eating sourdough [with wild yeasts] for millennia." [26] People had experimented before with microorganisms from the vaginal microbiota to create food and incite a reflection on the topic of food fermentation and female bodily autonomy and self-determination.
The exhibition Fermenting Futures (2022) by bioartists Alex May and Anna Dumitriu in collaboration with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) is an artwork focusing on the role of yeast biotechnology confronting global issues of contemporary society. The artist cultured and showcased fermentation flasks of Pichia pastoris used for the bioconversion of carbon dioxide into biodegradable plastics. The artwork The Bioarchaeology of Yeast recreates by moulding the biodeterioration marks left by certain yeasts, like black yeasts, on work of art and sculptures, and displays them as aesthetic objects, reflecting on the process of erosion; the installation Culture used CRISPR technology to confer to a non-fermenting strain of Pichia pastoris the ability to ferment and work as a leavening agent as the baker's yeast. [28] A team of artists and researchers developed novel art techniques using the model (that is, widely studied in laboratory research) mould Aspergillus nidulans. The artist-scientist team described the development of two new techniques: 'Fungal Dot Painting' and 'Etched Fungal Art.' In Fungal Dot Painting, akin to pointillism where small dots unite to compose an image, fungal conidia are inoculated into agar droplets which are then deposited on a dark surface of black acrylic glass for contrast, and incubated at the desired condition to allow fungal growth. In 'Etched Fungal Art', an acrylic glass surface modified by etching (lathing or printmaking) is poured over with a suspension of fungal conidia in an agar-based substrate, and then incubated to permit fungal growth into the etched channels. Both art forms allow for temporal dynamism, insofar as being composed of living fungal organisms they change and evolve over time. [27]
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https://fungal.page is a net art page, as a tribute to Wikipedia that takes the form of a mycelium invaded Wikipedia article. I wanted to picture it as a post-human vestige, an artefact invaded by biomorphic figures and spreading typography. I focused on how to create organic ornaments, affecting the encyclopedia’s interface, its typography, the figures and the Wikipedia logo itself. This piece also exists in other forms: A riso fanzine, stickers, poster and open source typeface. The main concept is spreading through media, just like fungi does in a fertile environment. Raphaelbastide ( talk) 13:47, 4 January 2023 (UTC)
Hello user:Raphaelbastide thanks for checking. I'd love this page to become a hub for people to share their work and for other to be inspired. Though for sharing information of Wikipedia I believe a reliable secondary source is needed. Is there any news coverage of your work which you can share? For Wikimedia Commons, I believe (but please check!) that it's perfectly fine to upload images of your work. Be aware about the CC-BY license though. Cheers CorradoNai ( talk) 17:34, 4 January 2023 (UTC)
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
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Reviewer: TompaDompa ( talk · contribs) 09:47, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
I will review this. Since the article is extremely lengthy (significantly more than 10,000 words), this will probably take a long time, and I intend to do it piecemeal. I'll ping you when I'm done. TompaDompa ( talk) 09:47, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
Use of fungal materials in artistic works, which would seem to suggest that the article is about using fungi to create art (e.g. using fungus-based dyes for paintings) rather than depictions of fungi in art (e.g. paintings of fungi).
enormous influence,
extremely various and prolific, and
incredibly diverse. This recurs in the body.
entheogenic (psychoactive)– not synonyms. Either gloss entheogen properly or just say "psychoactive".
Atzec– typo.
belonging to the eukaryotes (nucleated or 'higher' organisms)– what's the relevance of this?
being neglected or ignored– this is an opinion expressed in WP:WikiVoice.
Virtually all areas of the arts have been infiltrated by fungi– overly poetic phrasing.
Artists working with fungi are mostly representing (describing), showcasing (symbolizing), transforming, or utilizing them.– the meaning of this is not obvious. I gather that this is rather important to the overall thesis (for lack of a better word) of the article.
The distinction between these art practices and approaches are not clear-cut– subject–verb disagreement.
use them as narrative, rhetorical, stylistic, or stage element– the last word should be plural.
artists using fungi as transformative agent– the last word should be plural.
often explore the topic of transformation, decay, renewal, sustainability, circularity of matter– is this one topic or several? Either way its ungrammatical.
For 'indirect influence of fungi' it is meant the depiction or description of the effect of fungi– grammar. Also WP:REFERSTO.
the creation of art upon influence of fungi-derived substances– "upon"?
could also be considered an indirect influence of fungi in the art– MOS:WEASEL.
Further important aspects of fungi in art– having the title appear in bold in the fourth paragraph of the lead is way too late. Either include it in the first paragraph (sentence, really) or not at all.
Traditionally, mushrooms have been the main subject for depiction in the arts [...] the enormous plasticity of fungi enables artists to work with different fungal forms to create very diverse artworks.– unsourced.
Artworks representing, showcasing, transforming, and utilizing fungi.– which is which? The rest of the caption doesn't make that clear.
Clockwise from upper left– I'm fairly certain that's not the case. Clockwise from upper left would end with the bottom left image, but the description seems to end with the bottom right one.
1000 BCE-500 AD– use either BCE/CE or BC/AD, but be consistent. Since the rest of the article uses "BCE" consistently, I would suggest simply replacing "AD" with "CE" here. See also MOS:ENDASH.
Artists have often represented or described mushrooms as decorative, naturalistic, or symbolic element. In the graphic arts, architecture, sculpture, and literature, artists mostly represented or showcased mushrooms.– not in the cited sources.
mostly represented or showcased mushrooms– as opposed to mostly doing something else with mushrooms or as opposed to mostly representing/showcasing something else?
Currently, contemporary artists are increasingly– MOS:CURRENT.
Currently, contemporary artists are increasingly including mushrooms in their artworks.– this statement is followed by three sources, two of which verify nothing while the third merely says
Today, according to the curator of a new art exhibition, artists are more interested in fungi than ever before.The statement in this Wikipedia article is both stronger and more specific than the one made by the source.
as for example in– pleonasm.
Early depictions of fungi are petroglyphs from the Bronze Age– this is a general statement, but was presumably meant to be a specific one.
Given the mysterious, seasonal, sudden, and at times inexplicable appearance of mushrooms, as well as the hallucinogenic or toxic effects of some species, their depiction in ethnic, classic and modern art (around 1860–1970) is often associated in Western art with the macabre, ambiguous, dangerous, mystic, obscene, disgusting, alien, or curious in paintings, illustrations, and works of fiction and literature.– this kind of WP:ANALYSIS categorically needs to come from the sources.
Visual artists representing mushrooms have been very prolific throughout history. Whereas examples before the 15th century are rare, examples abound from European visual arts from the 1500 onwards including periods as the Renaissance, the Baroque, Flemish, and Romantic periods.– not in the cited source.
The 'Shaggy ink cap' and the Coprinus comatus– these two are the same, right?
The 'Shaggy ink cap' and the Coprinus comatus and the 'Common ink cap' Coprinus atramentaria mushrooms produce spores by deliquescing (liquefying, or melting) their cap into a black ink, which can be used in drawing, illustration, and calligraphy.– this could and should be condensed. It contains a lot of unnecessary details.
Protocols to produce the 'mushrooms ink' can be found online.– WP:NOTHOWTO.
as in petroglyphs representing mushroom-headed people discovered near the Pegtymel River (Siberia)– already mentioned.
around the world, including in western and non-western works– rather odd phrasing that doesn't provide much information. "Around the world" would seem to imply basically everywhere. Why elaborate further? Why use "western and non-western", specifically? Seems like WP:Systemic bias to me.
more mushrooms are present in artworks from cultures considered to be mycophiles– that hardly seems surprising. I might even expect this to be true by definition.
considered to be mycophiles– by whom?
collects and describe– grammar.
During the Victorian era, numerous scientists drew accurate illustrations of fungi, blurring the border between mycology and the arts.– unsourced.
Art periods and artists are categorized as follows in the registry:– so what? This is clearly out of proportion in this article. It might belong in an article about the registry itself, but not here.
Notable examples– see MOS:Words to watch.
Notable examples of visual artists depicting mushrooms and how they contributed to both mycology and the arts are:– how were these examples chosen? This is also a bad use of a list in a prose article.
how they contributed to both mycology and the arts– contributions to mycology are WP:OFFTOPIC if they don't relate to the arts. The Beatrix Potter entry is an example of going off-topic like this.
Hundreds of his paintings have been digitized by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel (Philadelphia)– superfluous detail.
He is known for his excellent illustrations– that's an opinion.
174 13" by 15"– clunky phrasing. This notation is also to be avoided, see MOS:INCH.
A countless number [...] abound– pleonasm.
Non-fiction books about fungi, especially those involving identification of fungi, includes photographs of fungal species and their fruiting bodies.– subject–verb disagreement.
Work of literary fiction– grammar.
Work of literary fiction involving mushrooms and fungi are often linked to [...]– I'm guessing this is meant to say that the mushrooms and fungi, rather than the fiction itself, are linked to that stuff.
often linked to infection, decay, toxicity, mystery, fantasy, and ambiguity, and thus have mostly a negative connotation– could you provide a quote from the source that verifies this?
In line with the assumption– whose assumption?
During the Victorian era, fungi started to acquire a more playful, childish, or jolly role in works of literary fiction.– not in the cited source.
Several renowned authors have used fungi as plot device.– MOS:PUFFERY.
These include Percy Shelly, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, D.H. Lawrence, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, and more.– "These include" means that the list is non-exhaustive, making "and more" redundant. I also find it questionable that it's necessary to give this many examples.
Lord Alfred Tennyson– I've heard this person referred to as "Alfred, Lord Tennyson", "Lord Tennyson", "Alfred Tennyson", and often just plain "Tennyson", but never "Lord Alfred Tennyson". I don't know if it's strictly speaking incorrect, but it sticks out.
Percy Shelly– typo.
Fungi have been a common trope in the science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy and crime fiction genres. Fungi have a long tradition in science fiction.– repetitive.
In Ray Bradbury's Come into My Cellar– the titles of short stories are presented in "quotation marks", not italics.
alien invasors– typo.
Fungi have been a common trope in the science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy and crime fiction genres. [...] Crime and detective writer Agatha Christie has repeatedly used mushrooms as murder weapon in her crime fiction.– does all of this come from the source cited at the end?
A non-exhaustive list of fictional stories involving mushrooms is given below:– why? This is not TV Tropes.
The quarterly periodical FUNGI Magazine runs a regular feature called Bookshelf Fungi reviewing fiction and non-fiction books on fungi.– unsourced.
In Western culture poetry, as in literature, fungi are historically associated with negative feelings or sentiments, although, together with the rising popularity of fungi, this trend might hold less true in recent years.– this kind of WP:ANALYSIS categorically needs to come from the sources.
The poem The Mushroom (1896) by Emily Dickinson is unsympathetic towards mushrooms. American author of weird horror and supernatural fiction H. P. Lovercraft created a collection of cosmic horror sonnets with fungi as subject called Fungi from Yuggoth (1929–30). Margaret Atwood's poem Mushrooms (1981) explores the topics of the life cycle and nature.– not in the cited source.
True to the observation that Asian cultures are mycophilic, several hundreds of Japanese haiku have as their subject mushrooms and mushroom hunting– not compliant with WP:NPOV. This is endorsing a particular viewpoint. This needs to be given WP:INTEXT attribution to the source that says that (1) Asian cultures are mycophilic and (2) this is reflected in haiku writing.
Numerous haiku have been recently translated into English.– superfluous detail, and MOS:RECENT.
fungi have had an conspicuous influence in mythology– "conspicuous"?
across various latitudes, civilizations, and historical epochs– why latitudes?
has arguably contributed– MOS:EDITORIALIZING.
The distinction between literature, folklore, and myth is not always clear cut, and occasionally open to interpretations.– who says so in this context?
Some writers argue that fungi have inspired numerous myths, and vice versa that many myths can be re-interpreted through the lens of fungal ecology.– do some authors say the former and others the latter, or do the same people say both? This also needs to be sourced.
Juda Iscariot– typo.
Occasionally, the involvement of fungi in myth and folklore is driven by allegory, cultural practices, or popular interpretations.– Unsourced.
For example, given the cultural relevance and prevalence of fermented (alcoholic) beverages throughout history, there are numerous deities associated with wine and beer, which can be regarded as an indirect effect of fungi in the arts.– according to whom? This could also be condensed by removing the superfluous "given the cultural relevance [...]" part.
Fungi (yeasts) play a conspicuous role in several religions, for example through fermentation (e.g. wine) and leavening (e.g. bread).– this overlaps significantly with the preceding sentence and could be merged with it. It also needs to be sourced.
According ton– typo.
In the Parable of the Leaven, one of the Parables of Jesus, the growth of the Kingdom of God is akin to the leavening of bread through yeast. [...] However, yeast is associated with corruption in other passages of the New Testament– this is interesting, but it needs to be sourced to reliable sources making the same point in the context of the topic of this article, i.e. fungi in art.
[Mead] has played an important role in the mythology of some peoples. In Norse mythology, for example, the Mead of Poetry, crafted from the blood of Kvasir (a wise being born from the mingled spittle of the Aesir and Vanir deities) would turn anyone who drank it into a poet or scholar.– unsourced.
As one of the evidences they provide– grammar.
as a way to increase mushroom harvesting– as a way to increase the amount harvested, presumably. Not the amount of work done harvesting.
where since recently– MOS:RECENT.
researchers are investigating the effect of electric voltage on mushroom sprouting, showing positive correlations with some species– WP:OFFTOPIC.
According to several interpretations, the legendary figure of Santa Claus is heavily influenced by the fly agaric– not at all what the source says. Millman says
Santa Claus: A celebrated gift giver who may have the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) as one of his ingredients.That's just one interpretation—Millman makes no mention of any other one—and there's a significant difference between "is heavily influenced by" and "may have as one of the ingredients".
anecdotal evidences– grammar. This is also not anecdotal evidence.
The connotation was dispregiative– dispregiative?
There is a conspicuous corpus of literature– odd and rather, yes, conspicuous phrasing.
Although these books are non-fictional, the works are often excellent examples of storytelling and tinkering– that's an opinion stated in WP:WikiVoice.
and are a fundamental source– that's also an opinion.
the growing do-it-yourself community– why describe it as "growing"?
These works are not only an important source but also a way for artists to converge and experiment with fungi.– unencyclopedic in tone. Comes off as promotional. Persuasive writing, really. Also unattributed opinion.
The book [...] offers insights– definitely way too promotional.
Some books proposed speculative or disputed theories on the cultural influence of fungi throughout history, like The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross by John Allegro, and were received critically by fellow mycologists.– why is this here? Basically every field will have some degree of disagreement within it. Is there any strong reason to bring this particular instance up?
The online book club 'MycoBookClub' discusses monthly a selection of mostly non-fiction books on fungi on Twitter.– why bring up an online book club?
Authors of non-fictional books about fungi are often pioneers– MOS:PUFFERY.
contribute to the increased popularity, popularisation [...]– contributing to the increased popularity of something and contributing to the popularisation of the same thing are just two different ways of saying the same thing, making this redundant.
Adaptations of literary fiction into motion pictures follow similar tropes present in science fiction, horror, supernatural, and crime fiction genres.– is that from the cited source? At any rate, this seems rather unsurprising and not necessarily worth mentioning.
the eponymous petroglyphs– how are they eponymous? The documentary is called Pegtymel, the name of the river.
commercially successful– wholly irrelevant MOS:PUFFERY.
released on Netflix– irrelevant detail.
renowned mycologist– MOS:PUFFERY.
the intriguing world of fungi– that's a subjective assessment.
presents the intriguing world of fungi [...] with the use of narration, time-lapse photography, and interviews– these are all rather standard techniques in documentary filmmaking. Is there any particular reason to mention this here?
The documentary covers fungi and not only mushrooms.– conspicuous phrasing. This rather forcefully implies that this is unexpected and a positive.
Recently, new film festivals– MOS:RECENTLY.
Screening ar online or at specific venues.– I'm not entirely sure what this is intended to say, but it appears to have been mistyped.
Most notably– according to whom? This is unattributed opinion stated in WP:WikiVoice.
Most notably are the Fungi Film Festival [...]– grammar.
Radical Mycology author Peter McCoy– is this meant to say that McCoy is the author of a work with the title Radical Mycology, or that McCoy is an author within the field of radical mycology? Either the capitalization or lack of italics is wrong.
often present at the 2022 Fungi Film Festival– often present at a single event? Is this meant to say that it is present in many entries in the 2022 event or that it is recurring in different years?
The commercially successful 2019 documentary Fantastic Fungi [...] Topics and themes often present at the 2022 Fungi Film Festival are personification of mushrooms, experimental/conceptual representation of fungal forms, and utilization of mushrooms for their (hallucinogenic) properties.– not in the cited source.
drew inspiration from Terence McKenna's ' Stoned Ape Theory'– which is what, exactly? This is not particularly informative.
In the Belgian comic franchise The Smurfs, the characters with the same name– poor phrasing. Really, this could all be replaced with just " The Smurfs".
American fantasy and science fiction comic book artist Frank Frazetta illustrated the cover image of the 1964 edition of the novel The Secret People (1935) by John Beynon (pseudonym of John Wyndham), in which fictive 'little people' inhabit areas with giant mushrooms.– presumably the last clause applies to the novel rather than the cover image, so why mention the cover image at all?
Dave Gibbon's comic strip Come into My Cellar is based on Ray Bradbury's short story with the same name.– Bradbury's story is mentioned above, so this seems superfluous.
Game designer Shigeru Miyamoto acknowledged Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland as direct influence for the 'super mushroom' in developing Nintendo's Super Mario video game.– this really buries the lead. The important part is surely the mushrooms appearing in the game, with the Alice in Wonderland inspiration of secondary importance here.
The celebrated video game franchise The Last of Us– MOS:PUFFERY.
wiped off humanity– wiped out humanity, presumably.
turning infected into zombies– this is missing a definite article or a noun.
Further video games where mushrooms appear as health-boosting collectibles or poisonous mushrooms– that's an odd framing. Also poorly phrased.
Zelda: Breth of the Wild– typo.
A music gerne– typo.
A music gerne called Fungi from the British Virgin Islands is defined as a mixture of many styles and instruments.– does this actually have anything to do with fungi, the biological kingdom? According to the linked article, that's not where the name comes from.
The Czech composer and mycologist Václav Hálek (1937-2014) claimed to have created numerous musical works inspired by fungi.– claimed?
Václav Hálek– it is inappropriate to link to a Wikipedia article in a different language without making that obvious to the reader. Use Template:Interlanguage link instead, like this: Václav Hálek .
American composer John Cage (1912-1992) was an enthusiastic amateur mycologist and co-founder the New York Mycological Society.– what's the relevance of this? Being a composer and an amateur mycologist does not in itself imply a connection between the to.
'Fossora' is the feminine declination of the Latin fossore, meaning "she who digs".– what's the relevance of this?
'Fossora' is the feminine declination of the Latin fossore, meaning "she who digs".– the cited source says "it is a word i made up".
feminine declination– the word you're looking for is declension.
The Czech composer and mycologist Václav Hálek [...]– already mentioned.
A non-exhaustive list of songs inspired by mushrooms (fungi) is given below:– why? This is WP:NOTTVTROPES.
made of transparent or opaque glass, although coloured glass was used when needed– that seems to cover most bases. What am I missing?
Fungi enter cuisine mostly as fruiting bodies (mushrooms).– is that really true? Yeasts and molds also have very central roles in cuisine.
mushrooms can be considered a novel culinary trend– according to whom?
The 'Shaggy ink cap' mushroom Coprinus comatus produces spores by deliquescing (liquefying, or melting) its cap into a black ink.– already mentioned above.
it is used in Mexico as the delicacy huitlacoche [...] in Mexico they are highly esteemed as a delicacy, where it is known as huitlacoche– extreme redundancy within the same paragraph, both in terms of repeated information and repeated links.
Huitlacoche is a source of the essential amino acid lysine, which the body requires but cannot manufacture. It also contains levels of beta-glucans similar to, and protein content equal or superior to, most edible fungi.– why discuss the nutritional value here?
Current research on psychoactive mushrooms shows promises for the treatment of mental-health ailments like chronic depression and anxiety.– why on Earth is this article making biomedical claims?
A 'mushroom counterculture' has been often fuelled by eccentric, unorthodox, and unfalsifiable hyphotheses and interpretations of the influence of (hallucinogenic) mushrooms in culture developments [...]– who is making this assertion? I seriously doubt the cited source by McKenna (who is used as an example of this) says this.
McKenna hyphotesis– double typo.
McKenna hyphotesis has been controversial– MOS:CONTROVERSIAL.
Hyphae are the most metabolically active structures of fungi, secreting high amounts of digestive enzymes in the surrounding environment to consume the growth substratum, as well as bioactive metabolites, including substances used in modern medicine ( antibiotic and antimicrobial drugs). Hyphae and mycelia grow by extension and branching, and fungi forming those structures are often referred to as 'filamentous fungi'.– relevance?
Mycelia and hyphae have seldomly been represented, showcased, transformed, or utilized in the traditional arts due to their invisible, ignored, and overlooked lifestyle and appearance.– source?
have seldomly been represented [...] due to their invisible, ignored, and overlooked lifestyle and appearance.– they have seldomly been represented because they are ignored and overlooked?
lifestyle and appearance– "lifestyle"?
enjoying increasing visibility, marketing, commercialization, and endorsement from celebrities– and Wikipedia articles like this one? Joking aside, this comes off as promotional.
In literature and fiction, hyphae and mycelia are considered (if at all) for their intrinsic properties of decomposition, contamination, and decay.– source?
The filamentous, prolific, and fast growth of hyphae and mycelia (like moulds) in suitable conditions and growth media often makes these fungal forms good subject of time-lapse photography.– according to whom?
imagery allegedly inspired by ergotism– if the qualifier "allegedly" is necessary, this doesn't belong. If it isn't necessary, it should be removed. Either way, this needs to be sourced.
Whereas non-fiction books about fungi often (if not always) include hyphae and mycelia, examples of hyphae and mycelia in literary fiction are much rarer in comparison to mushrooms and spores. When these fungal forms are included in work of fiction, they are often associated with elements of rot and decay.– unsourced.
fast, radial growth (also called isodiametric growth, that is, with same speed and size in all directions)– this is mentioned elsewhere and could be condensed significantly even if it weren't.
mycelia and hyphae are often used as time-lapse photography to present filamentous growth and/or decay– source?
its growth plasticity (e.g. the ability to take virtually any shape upon being cast in a desired form)– I believe "i.e." is intended here, rather than "e.g."
vernacularly called– conspicuous phrasing. The usual phrase is "commonly called", or sometimes "colloquially called". A simple "also called" would also do the trick here.
the Stradivarius violin– there are multiple Stradivarius violins, not just one.
produce sounds close to those from the Stradivarius violin– this is an WP:EXCEPTIONAL claim, and as such needs exceptional sourcing.
mixd into– typo.
Current collaborations– MOS:CURRENT.
Luxury fashion brands like Adidas, Stella McCartney, and Hermès are introducing vegan alternatives to leather made from mycelium.– comes off as promotional.
Remarkable evidence– MOS:FLOWERY.
Mycologist Paul Stamets famously wears a hat made of amadou.– famously? That needs to be backed up with reliable sources saying so, and I daresay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPqWstVnRjQ is not a WP:Reliable source.
Fungi has– subject–verb disagreement.
Fungal mycelia are used as leather-like material (also known as pleather, artificial leather, or synthetic leather), including for high-end fashion design products.– already covered above.
cruelty-free– that's a value-laden WP:LABEL.
A patent study covering 2009-2018 highlighted the current patent landscape around mycelial materials based on patents filed or pending.– relevance?
Mushrooms are traditionally the main form of fungi used for direct consumption in the culinary arts.– this is a subtly but significantly different claim than the one I questioned above. This version is much less dubious. That being said, it's not in the cited source.
an enormous variety– inappropriately emphatic language.
beverages such as beer, wine, sake, kombucha, coffee, soy sauce, tofu, cheese, or chocolate– not all of these are beverages.
just to name a few– inappropriately informal. Also redundant to "including".
The Michelin-star restaurant The Alchemist in Copenhagen– mentioning the Michelin star comes off as promotional.
Copenhagen (Danemark)– Denmark.
'mycelium-based seafood'– this quote does not appear in the cited source.
'mycelium-based bacon.'– this quote does not appear in the cited sources. See also MOS:LQ about punctuation placement.
Hapha and mycelium– typo.
gets increased attention in the contemporary art due to its growth and plasticity, and is occasionally the starting point for artworks in the contemporary art– repetitive phrasing.
the biotechnology-relevant fungus Aspergillus niger– why gloss it like that?
freely available at www.color.bio– I would suggest you review Wikipedia's policy on WP:External links.
Examples of fungal spores in the arts are rare due to their invisibility and difficulties to treat and manipulate as working matter.– source?
Notable exceptions are so called 'spore prints,' or glass sculptures by mycologist William Dillon Weston (1899-1953) representing magnified microfungi and spores (ascospores, basidiospores).– this is a general statement, but was presumably meant to be a specific one.
Notable exceptions– MOS:NOTABLE.
' spore prints,'– MOS:LQ.
Often, fungal spores are employed as an agent of infection and decay in literature and the graphic arts, whereas recently they are increasingly used in the contemporary art in a positive or neutral way to reflect about processes of transformation, interaction, decay, circular economy, and sustainability.– the cited source doesn't actually say this.
a flat, white or coloured surface– this is ambiguous. Does it refer to (1) a surface that is flat, and is additionally either white or coloured, or (2) a surface that might be flat, might be white, and might be coloured, but always one of those three?
spores prints– grammar.
Whereas non-fictional books about fungi cover spores in the context of fungal spore formation, dispersal, harvesting, or germination, works of literary fiction involving spores are generally linked to infection and decay, and thus have mostly a negative connotation.– source?
In stories where mushrooms are perceived or represented as threat, spores fulfill the same role.– source?
In the short story Come into My Cellar, by Ray Bradbury, for example, spores are depicted as an alien invasion.– see my earlier comments about this story.
The critically acclaimed and commercially successful video game franchise– MOS:PUFFERY.
by Sony Computer Entertainment– relevance of this detail?
( Part I, released in 2013; downloadable content adds-on The Last of Us: Left Behind, released in 2014; Part II, released in 2020)– seems like unnecessary detail.
An important part of the plot of The Last of Us game franchise revolves around vaccines against the fungal disease; as opposed to vaccination against viral and bacterial pathogens, research on vaccines for human fungal diseases lags behind, with currently no vaccine available against human fungal pathogens.– this goes way WP:OFFTOPIC.
The Last of Us Part II has been awarded best video game of 2020 by The Game Awards.– entirely irrelevant.
A television adaptation by HBO starring among others Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, and Nick Offerman as Bill, is due in January 2023.– outdated.
A television adaptation by HBO– why does it matter that it's by HBO?
starring among others Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, and Nick Offerman as Bill– the character names mean nothing to readers unfamiliar with the franchise. Who stars in the show is also not relevant to the topic of this article.
The comic strip by Dave Gibbon Come into My Cellar is based on Ray Bradbury's short story with the same name, where fungal spores are an alien entity taking over humanity by mind control, especially of children obsessed with growing mushrooms in their home basement.– again with this story. See my earlier comments about it.
An adaptation into Italian appeared for the famous comic series Corto Maltese in 1992 with the name Vieni nella mia cantina.– how does this relate to the topic of this article? It's presented entirely devoid of explanatory context.
in the hands of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae– "in the hands of" is inappropriate here (and when the same phrasing recurs later in the same paragraph). See MOS:CLICHE.
Blue cheese is cheese [...]– you don't say? The second "cheese" is redundant.
Naturalists illustrating their observations often created remarkable work of arts.– that's an opinion.
extremely common– inappropriately emphatic language.
contributed enormously– inappropriately emphatic language.
which is but one of– not particularly encyclopedic in tone.
Other testimonies of the indirect effect of yeasts in the arts are the numerous deities and myths are associated with wine and beer.– anacoluthon.
The field of ethnomycology focuses more on the influence of psychoactive fungi on human culture rather than on aspects such as medicine, food production practices, or cultural influence in the arts.– going a bit WP:OFFTOPIC.
Time-lapses photography– grammar.
Aside from various illustrations, lichens are very seldomly represented in the arts to their slow growth as well as their frailty towards maniputation.– seems to be missing a "due".
maniputation– typo.
Notable examples– MOS:NOTABLE.
Notable examples of yeasts, moulds or lichens in the arts include:– why the list? This is not TV Tropes.
Ernst Häckel– see my earlier comment about the name. This is also unsourced.
dying substances– I think this is meant to say "dyeing substances", i.e. substances used as dyes.
In the science fiction novel Trouble with Lichen (1960) by John Wyndham, a chemical extract from a lichen is able to slow down the aging process, with a profound influence on society– unsourced.
In Stephen King's horror short story Gray Matter (1973), a recluse man living with his son drinks a 'foul beer' and slowly transforms into an inhuman blob-like abomination that craves warm beer and shun light, and transmutes into a fungus-like fictional creature– unsourced.
a comedy which won numerous awards at international film festivals– unnecessary detail, comes off as promotional.
involves 'a young trombone player [...] trying to open an impossible bottle of wine [...] and some mold gets in his way– unpaired quotation mark.
In so-called ' mold paintings,' surfaces of buildings or sculptures are intentionally overgrown with moulds to create visually appealing effects– unsourced.
In so-called ' mold paintings,' surfaces of buildings or sculptures are intentionally overgrown with moulds to create visually appealing effects– stick to spelling it either "mold" or "mould". Switching back and forth looks unprofessional, especially when (as here) within a single sentence.
The musical provides freely available teaching resources– we are not their PR team. See WP:NOTPROMO.
however, during baking, microorganisms present in dough are most probably heat deactivated and thus harmless.– not in the cited source. This violates WP:NPOV by engaging in a dispute rather than describing it.
the homemade yogurt relied on the fermentation properties of lactic acid baceria (e.g. lactobacilli), rather than yeasts (fungi)– that would make it out of scope for this article then, now wouldn't it?
unlike bread, yogurt is a culture of living microorganisms– not in the cited source.
The praxis is thus considered a food hazard by the US Food and Drug Administration.– that's not actually what the source says. It says that the end product would be considered adulterated, and it gives a completely different reason as to why that is.
an artwork which wants to make the audience reflect about the role of yeast biotechnology to confront global issues of contemporary society– that's an appropriate way to describe it for the artist, or an exhibition, or the news media, but it's not appropriate for Wikipedia.
aestic objects– typo.
Physarum polycephalum is a slime mould ( myxomycete) and not a fungus– that would make it out of scope for this article then, now wouldn't it?
Due to its complex problem-solving abilities, the slime mould is used to mimic or investigate human behaviours.– unsourced.
Physarum polycephalum has been shown to exhibit characteristics similar to those seen in single-celled creatures and eusocial insects. For example, a team of Japanese and Hungarian researchers have shown P. polycephalum can solve the shortest path problem. When grown in a maze with oatmeal at two spots, P. polycephalum retracts from everywhere in the maze, except the shortest route connecting the two food sources.– what on Earth does this have to do with the topic of this article, fungi in art? This is neither a fungus nor art.
This indirect influence of fungi in the arts can be broadly classified into three categories:– you really need to get this WP:ANALYSIS from the sources.
Of notable example– MOS:NOTABLE, grammar.
insofar part of their artworks have been likely created under the influence of fungal substances while they also depict the effect of fungal metabolites– this is rather difficult to parse.
represent a treat– a threat, presumably.
damage them by means of mechanical, chemical, or aesthetic damage– damage them by means of damage? That's rather redundant.
damage them by means of mechanical, chemical, or aesthetic damage– mechanical and chemical damage would seem to be the processes by which aesthetic damage occurs. This is mixing apples and oranges, in other words.
An area of applied research focuses on limiting the growth, harm, and health hazard of mould growing inside buildings, often referred to as 'microbiology of the built environment.'– this doesn't seem to be related to art at all?
A recent study– MOS:RECENT.
xerophilic (tolerant to desiccation)– not the most helpful gloss as it still uses rather technical language. If I had to gloss it I might say "can withstand dry conditions".
Microorganisms like fungi are not only considered in the preservation of artworks do due their decaying and contaminating properties.– this appears to have been mistyped. I'm not entirely sure what it was meant to say.
Artists and scientists jointly defined a framework for fruitful collaborations between (fungal) science and the arts.– this uses a large number of words to convey very little information.
The generally low visibility of fungi (other than mushrooms) in the arts can be correlated with the general knowledge and research on fungi, both of which lag behind in comparison with other life science disciplines– this sounds a lot like WP:Original research to me. If it comes from the sources it needs WP:INTEXT attribution, and if it doesn't it needs to be removed.
Mycology was named as a natural science discipline of its own in 1836 only– that doesn't strike me as particularly late, actually. It predates e.g. bacteriology and virology significantly, does it not? For that matter, it predates evolutionary biology. From what I can gather, it also predates ecology.
the fungi kingdom Funga was defined in 1969 only– redundant phrasing aside, the kingdom is called Fungi.
and even today conservation efforts on fungal biodiversity lag behind in comparison to those of species in other kingdoms of life like animals and plants.– overly argumentative in tone.
Currently, in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, only over 500 fungi are included, in comparison to over 58,000 plants and 12,000 insects.– I am unable to verify this from the cited source, though I'm sure the relevant information can be found somewhere on the webpage. However, this is just raw data. The phrasing rather forcefully implies that the number of fungi should be higher, but that's an assessment that unequivocally needs to come from WP:Reliable sources. Also MOS:CURRENT.
Several artistic explorations of fungi have as background, intention or goal the development of sustainable solutions to current environmental issues, or aim at raising awareness on these topics.– this is an example of a sentence that uses far more words than necessary to convey the point. Without even restructuring the sentence, rephrasing it as "Several artistic explorations of fungi
Several artistic explorations of fungi have as background, intention or goal the development of sustainable solutions to current environmental issues, or aim at raising awareness on these topics. These endeavors often involve a multi-disciplinary approach between artists and fungal practitioners, and transform or utilize fungi for the desired goal.—together consist of 49 words, but could be rewritten with as few as 18—"Sustainable solutions to environmental issues is a recurring theme, often used by artists working together with fungal practitioners."—while still conveying the main points (not that this is necessarily the best way to do it). Sometimes less is more, and this article suffers from a lack of brevity.
Occasionally, a commercial outcome beyond the purely artistic approach or experimentation is striven for or achieved.– this is not entirely relevant, and kind of sounds like PR-speak ("we want to make money, but are embarrassed to admit it"),
these approaches fall often within the realm of circular economy.– it's good to have links for terms like this that many readers will not be familiar with, but this is an instance where I think it also needs to be explained in the context where it appears.
Patents to intellectually protect the technological developments are often filed.– I think this goes without saying.
Examples of the use of fungi in sustainability approaches fall within production of fungus-based materials for personal use (vegan leather, house furniture) or as construction materials, or for alternative burial practices (bioremediation), just to name a few.– "Examples [...] fall within [...] just to name a few" is a very redundant phrasing. "Just to name a few" should also be avoided for reasons of being unencyclopedic in tone.
Fungus-derived material from mycelium are being developed– grammar.
Fungus-derived material from mycelium are being developed to create artificial leather for high-end fashion products– this is the third(?) time this is mentioned in the article.
and hold promises to be a sustainable alternative to animal-derived leather– extremely promotional in tone.
by international artists– what does "international artists" mean? It comes off as a euphemism for "foreigners".
More and more artists work with fungi [...]– is that "more and more artists" (an increasing number of artists) or "more and more, artists [...]" (to an increasing extent, artists [...])?
communicating the importance of fungi– WP:POV. This is endorsing that viewpoint.
birth complicacies– birth complications.
There are very few examples of museums entirely devoted to fungi (one example being the Museo del Hongo in Chile).– the first and second parts pull in different directions, so to speak. This would need to be rephrased to not sound incongruent.
relevant examples– "relevant" is a MOS:Word to watch that should be used only with care. It's not outright inappropriate here, but it is redundant.
Several relevant examples include:– as noted several times above, avoid lists like these.
fostering and supporting works able to stimulate dialogues– very promotional.
as for example from– grammar.
enhance the visibility of fungi– promo-speak.
The Fungi Foundation is the first non-governmental organisation dedicated to fungi– being the first is something they would mention to promote themselves, but it is not something that is relevant for Wikipedia to mention here.
signatories include Jane Goodall, Michael Pollan, Paul Stamets, Philipp Ball, Alan Rayner and many more– "include" and "and many more" are redundant to each other. This also comes off basically the same way as the "Hello, I'm Tom Hanks. The US government has lost its credibility, so it's borrowing some of mine." joke from The Simpsons.
and since 2023– it's 2023 now, so I'd say it's way too early to say "since 2023" (at least in this context). It's basically making a promise about the future, which runs afoul of WP:CRYSTAL.
The last report has been published in 2020.– last or latest? It also was published.
GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria
@ CorradoNai: I'm closing this as unsuccessful. The list of issues above is not exhaustive, but a sample of issues I noted while reading through the article. I don't think this can be brought up to WP:Good article standards within a reasonable time frame.
I'll briefly summarize the main issues that keep this from being a WP:Good article in the foreseeable future:
References must be cited in context and on topic.I would expect sources to be used in this way somewhere where original thought is allowed or even encouraged, perhaps an essay or a research paper. Beyond this, a lot of material lacks sources outright and the writing style/tone is often unencyclopedic—sometimes promotional, sometimes argumentative.
I'm afraid this means that my advice basically amounts to "start over and rewrite the entire article".
I gather that you are fairly new to this, and I don't want to discourage you from contributing to Wikipedia. To that end, I'll suggest WP:Peer review as a a more appropriate venue to bring this article to in order to get feedback and suggestions for improving the article (if you do that after addressing the core issues I noted above, you may ping me and I'll weigh in as time permits). You may also wish to consult the WP:Guild of Copy Editors. I would also suggest reading the essay WP:Writing better articles, as it covers a lot of issues that appear throughout this article. I will add some maintenance templates to the article. TompaDompa ( talk) 16:32, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
Wonderful, thank you. I will address point by point. CorradoNai ( talk) 18:07, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
Dear TompaDompa (and everyone helping improving this page), many thanks for the very helpful comments, and in general for helping me become a better Wikipedian. I copy-pasted the comments below, and will answer point by point. I decided not to rewrite the page, because I hope that the structure of the page proves helpful as a framework to present very different examples of artworks within the same scope (how fungi directly and indirectly influence the arts). See also my answers to the general comments below. I hope that having a more precise scope of the article, shortening, and better incoporating sources might do the trick. CorradoNai ( talk) 06:29, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
Use of fungal materials in artistic works, which would seem to suggest that the article is about using fungi to create art (e.g. using fungus-based dyes for paintings) rather than depictions of fungi in art (e.g. paintings of fungi).
== not addressed point by point, but rather as a whole - I believe other WIkipedians also already chipped in, so the lead is quite different from the original now == CorradoNai ( talk) 13:52, 18 May 2023 (UTC)
enormous influence,
extremely various and prolific, and
incredibly diverse. This recurs in the body.
entheogenic (psychoactive)– not synonyms. Either gloss entheogen properly or just say "psychoactive".
Atzec– typo.
belonging to the eukaryotes (nucleated or 'higher' organisms)– what's the relevance of this?
being neglected or ignored– this is an opinion expressed in WP:WikiVoice.
Virtually all areas of the arts have been infiltrated by fungi– overly poetic phrasing.
Artists working with fungi are mostly representing (describing), showcasing (symbolizing), transforming, or utilizing them.– the meaning of this is not obvious. I gather that this is rather important to the overall thesis (for lack of a better word) of the article.
The distinction between these art practices and approaches are not clear-cut– subject–verb disagreement.
use them as narrative, rhetorical, stylistic, or stage element– the last word should be plural.
artists using fungi as transformative agent– the last word should be plural.
often explore the topic of transformation, decay, renewal, sustainability, circularity of matter– is this one topic or several? Either way its ungrammatical.
For 'indirect influence of fungi' it is meant the depiction or description of the effect of fungi– grammar. Also WP:REFERSTO.
the creation of art upon influence of fungi-derived substances– "upon"?
could also be considered an indirect influence of fungi in the art– MOS:WEASEL.
Further important aspects of fungi in art– having the title appear in bold in the fourth paragraph of the lead is way too late. Either include it in the first paragraph (sentence, really) or not at all.
Traditionally, mushrooms have been the main subject for depiction in the arts [...] the enormous plasticity of fungi enables artists to work with different fungal forms to create very diverse artworks.– unsourced.
Artworks representing, showcasing, transforming, and utilizing fungi.– which is which? The rest of the caption doesn't make that clear.
Clockwise from upper left– I'm fairly certain that's not the case. Clockwise from upper left would end with the bottom left image, but the description seems to end with the bottom right one.
1000 BCE-500 AD– use either BCE/CE or BC/AD, but be consistent. Since the rest of the article uses "BCE" consistently, I would suggest simply replacing "AD" with "CE" here. See also MOS:ENDASH.
Artists have often represented or described mushrooms as decorative, naturalistic, or symbolic element. In the graphic arts, architecture, sculpture, and literature, artists mostly represented or showcased mushrooms.– not in the cited sources.
mostly represented or showcased mushrooms– as opposed to mostly doing something else with mushrooms or as opposed to mostly representing/showcasing something else?
Currently, contemporary artists are increasingly– MOS:CURRENT.
Currently, contemporary artists are increasingly including mushrooms in their artworks.– this statement is followed by three sources, two of which verify nothing while the third merely says
Today, according to the curator of a new art exhibition, artists are more interested in fungi than ever before.The statement in this Wikipedia article is both stronger and more specific than the one made by the source.
as for example in– pleonasm.
Early depictions of fungi are petroglyphs from the Bronze Age– this is a general statement, but was presumably meant to be a specific one.
Given the mysterious, seasonal, sudden, and at times inexplicable appearance of mushrooms, as well as the hallucinogenic or toxic effects of some species, their depiction in ethnic, classic and modern art (around 1860–1970) is often associated in Western art with the macabre, ambiguous, dangerous, mystic, obscene, disgusting, alien, or curious in paintings, illustrations, and works of fiction and literature.– this kind of WP:ANALYSIS categorically needs to come from the sources.
Visual artists representing mushrooms have been very prolific throughout history. Whereas examples before the 15th century are rare, examples abound from European visual arts from the 1500 onwards including periods as the Renaissance, the Baroque, Flemish, and Romantic periods.– not in the cited source.
The 'Shaggy ink cap' and the Coprinus comatus– these two are the same, right?
The 'Shaggy ink cap' and the Coprinus comatus and the 'Common ink cap' Coprinus atramentaria mushrooms produce spores by deliquescing (liquefying, or melting) their cap into a black ink, which can be used in drawing, illustration, and calligraphy.– this could and should be condensed. It contains a lot of unnecessary details.
Protocols to produce the 'mushrooms ink' can be found online.– WP:NOTHOWTO.
as in petroglyphs representing mushroom-headed people discovered near the Pegtymel River (Siberia)– already mentioned.
around the world, including in western and non-western works– rather odd phrasing that doesn't provide much information. "Around the world" would seem to imply basically everywhere. Why elaborate further? Why use "western and non-western", specifically? Seems like WP:Systemic bias to me.
more mushrooms are present in artworks from cultures considered to be mycophiles– that hardly seems surprising. I might even expect this to be true by definition.
considered to be mycophiles– by whom?
collects and describe– grammar.
During the Victorian era, numerous scientists drew accurate illustrations of fungi, blurring the border between mycology and the arts.– unsourced.
Art periods and artists are categorized as follows in the registry:– so what? This is clearly out of proportion in this article. It might belong in an article about the registry itself, but not here.
Notable examples– see MOS:Words to watch.
Notable examples of visual artists depicting mushrooms and how they contributed to both mycology and the arts are:– how were these examples chosen? This is also a bad use of a list in a prose article.
how they contributed to both mycology and the arts– contributions to mycology are WP:OFFTOPIC if they don't relate to the arts. The Beatrix Potter entry is an example of going off-topic like this.
Hundreds of his paintings have been digitized by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel (Philadelphia)– superfluous detail.
He is known for his excellent illustrations– that's an opinion.
174 13" by 15"– clunky phrasing. This notation is also to be avoided, see MOS:INCH.
A countless number [...] abound– pleonasm.
Non-fiction books about fungi, especially those involving identification of fungi, includes photographs of fungal species and their fruiting bodies.– subject–verb disagreement.
Work of literary fiction– grammar.
Work of literary fiction involving mushrooms and fungi are often linked to [...]– I'm guessing this is meant to say that the mushrooms and fungi, rather than the fiction itself, are linked to that stuff.
often linked to infection, decay, toxicity, mystery, fantasy, and ambiguity, and thus have mostly a negative connotation– could you provide a quote from the source that verifies this?
In line with the assumption– whose assumption?
During the Victorian era, fungi started to acquire a more playful, childish, or jolly role in works of literary fiction.– not in the cited source.
Several renowned authors have used fungi as plot device.– MOS:PUFFERY.
These include Percy Shelly, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, D.H. Lawrence, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, and more.– "These include" means that the list is non-exhaustive, making "and more" redundant. I also find it questionable that it's necessary to give this many examples.
Lord Alfred Tennyson– I've heard this person referred to as "Alfred, Lord Tennyson", "Lord Tennyson", "Alfred Tennyson", and often just plain "Tennyson", but never "Lord Alfred Tennyson". I don't know if it's strictly speaking incorrect, but it sticks out.
Percy Shelly– typo.
Fungi have been a common trope in the science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy and crime fiction genres. Fungi have a long tradition in science fiction.– repetitive.
In Ray Bradbury's Come into My Cellar– the titles of short stories are presented in "quotation marks", not italics.
alien invasors– typo.
Fungi have been a common trope in the science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy and crime fiction genres. [...] Crime and detective writer Agatha Christie has repeatedly used mushrooms as murder weapon in her crime fiction.– does all of this come from the source cited at the end?
A non-exhaustive list of fictional stories involving mushrooms is given below:– why? This is not TV Tropes.
The quarterly periodical FUNGI Magazine runs a regular feature called Bookshelf Fungi reviewing fiction and non-fiction books on fungi.– unsourced.
In Western culture poetry, as in literature, fungi are historically associated with negative feelings or sentiments, although, together with the rising popularity of fungi, this trend might hold less true in recent years.– this kind of WP:ANALYSIS categorically needs to come from the sources.
The poem The Mushroom (1896) by Emily Dickinson is unsympathetic towards mushrooms. American author of weird horror and supernatural fiction H. P. Lovercraft created a collection of cosmic horror sonnets with fungi as subject called Fungi from Yuggoth (1929–30). Margaret Atwood's poem Mushrooms (1981) explores the topics of the life cycle and nature.– not in the cited source.
True to the observation that Asian cultures are mycophilic, several hundreds of Japanese haiku have as their subject mushrooms and mushroom hunting– not compliant with WP:NPOV. This is endorsing a particular viewpoint. This needs to be given WP:INTEXT attribution to the source that says that (1) Asian cultures are mycophilic and (2) this is reflected in haiku writing.
Numerous haiku have been recently translated into English.– superfluous detail, and MOS:RECENT.
fungi have had an conspicuous influence in mythology– "conspicuous"?
across various latitudes, civilizations, and historical epochs– why latitudes?
has arguably contributed– MOS:EDITORIALIZING.
The distinction between literature, folklore, and myth is not always clear cut, and occasionally open to interpretations.– who says so in this context?
Some writers argue that fungi have inspired numerous myths, and vice versa that many myths can be re-interpreted through the lens of fungal ecology.– do some authors say the former and others the latter, or do the same people say both? This also needs to be sourced.
Juda Iscariot– typo.
Occasionally, the involvement of fungi in myth and folklore is driven by allegory, cultural practices, or popular interpretations.– Unsourced.
For example, given the cultural relevance and prevalence of fermented (alcoholic) beverages throughout history, there are numerous deities associated with wine and beer, which can be regarded as an indirect effect of fungi in the arts.– according to whom? This could also be condensed by removing the superfluous "given the cultural relevance [...]" part.
Fungi (yeasts) play a conspicuous role in several religions, for example through fermentation (e.g. wine) and leavening (e.g. bread).– this overlaps significantly with the preceding sentence and could be merged with it. It also needs to be sourced.
According ton– typo.
In the Parable of the Leaven, one of the Parables of Jesus, the growth of the Kingdom of God is akin to the leavening of bread through yeast. [...] However, yeast is associated with corruption in other passages of the New Testament– this is interesting, but it needs to be sourced to reliable sources making the same point in the context of the topic of this article, i.e. fungi in art.
[Mead] has played an important role in the mythology of some peoples. In Norse mythology, for example, the Mead of Poetry, crafted from the blood of Kvasir (a wise being born from the mingled spittle of the Aesir and Vanir deities) would turn anyone who drank it into a poet or scholar.– unsourced.
As one of the evidences they provide– grammar.
as a way to increase mushroom harvesting– as a way to increase the amount harvested, presumably. Not the amount of work done harvesting.
where since recently– MOS:RECENT.
researchers are investigating the effect of electric voltage on mushroom sprouting, showing positive correlations with some species– WP:OFFTOPIC.
According to several interpretations, the legendary figure of Santa Claus is heavily influenced by the fly agaric– not at all what the source says. Millman says
Santa Claus: A celebrated gift giver who may have the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) as one of his ingredients.That's just one interpretation—Millman makes no mention of any other one—and there's a significant difference between "is heavily influenced by" and "may have as one of the ingredients".
anecdotal evidences– grammar. This is also not anecdotal evidence.
The connotation was dispregiative– dispregiative?
There is a conspicuous corpus of literature– odd and rather, yes, conspicuous phrasing.
Although these books are non-fictional, the works are often excellent examples of storytelling and tinkering– that's an opinion stated in WP:WikiVoice.
and are a fundamental source– that's also an opinion.
the growing do-it-yourself community– why describe it as "growing"?
These works are not only an important source but also a way for artists to converge and experiment with fungi.– unencyclopedic in tone. Comes off as promotional. Persuasive writing, really. Also unattributed opinion.
The book [...] offers insights– definitely way too promotional.
Some books proposed speculative or disputed theories on the cultural influence of fungi throughout history, like The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross by John Allegro, and were received critically by fellow mycologists.– why is this here? Basically every field will have some degree of disagreement within it. Is there any strong reason to bring this particular instance up?
The online book club 'MycoBookClub' discusses monthly a selection of mostly non-fiction books on fungi on Twitter.– why bring up an online book club?
Authors of non-fictional books about fungi are often pioneers– MOS:PUFFERY.
contribute to the increased popularity, popularisation [...]– contributing to the increased popularity of something and contributing to the popularisation of the same thing are just two different ways of saying the same thing, making this redundant.
Adaptations of literary fiction into motion pictures follow similar tropes present in science fiction, horror, supernatural, and crime fiction genres.– is that from the cited source? At any rate, this seems rather unsurprising and not necessarily worth mentioning.
the eponymous petroglyphs– how are they eponymous? The documentary is called Pegtymel, the name of the river.
commercially successful– wholly irrelevant MOS:PUFFERY.
released on Netflix– irrelevant detail.
renowned mycologist– MOS:PUFFERY.
the intriguing world of fungi– that's a subjective assessment.
presents the intriguing world of fungi [...] with the use of narration, time-lapse photography, and interviews– these are all rather standard techniques in documentary filmmaking. Is there any particular reason to mention this here?
The documentary covers fungi and not only mushrooms.– conspicuous phrasing. This rather forcefully implies that this is unexpected and a positive.
Recently, new film festivals– MOS:RECENTLY.
Screening ar online or at specific venues.– I'm not entirely sure what this is intended to say, but it appears to have been mistyped.
Most notably– according to whom? This is unattributed opinion stated in WP:WikiVoice.
Most notably are the Fungi Film Festival [...]– grammar.
Radical Mycology author Peter McCoy– is this meant to say that McCoy is the author of a work with the title Radical Mycology, or that McCoy is an author within the field of radical mycology? Either the capitalization or lack of italics is wrong.
often present at the 2022 Fungi Film Festival– often present at a single event? Is this meant to say that it is present in many entries in the 2022 event or that it is recurring in different years?
The commercially successful 2019 documentary Fantastic Fungi [...] Topics and themes often present at the 2022 Fungi Film Festival are personification of mushrooms, experimental/conceptual representation of fungal forms, and utilization of mushrooms for their (hallucinogenic) properties.– not in the cited source.
drew inspiration from Terence McKenna's ' Stoned Ape Theory'– which is what, exactly? This is not particularly informative.
In the Belgian comic franchise The Smurfs, the characters with the same name– poor phrasing. Really, this could all be replaced with just " The Smurfs".
American fantasy and science fiction comic book artist Frank Frazetta illustrated the cover image of the 1964 edition of the novel The Secret People (1935) by John Beynon (pseudonym of John Wyndham), in which fictive 'little people' inhabit areas with giant mushrooms.– presumably the last clause applies to the novel rather than the cover image, so why mention the cover image at all?
Dave Gibbon's comic strip Come into My Cellar is based on Ray Bradbury's short story with the same name.– Bradbury's story is mentioned above, so this seems superfluous.
Game designer Shigeru Miyamoto acknowledged Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland as direct influence for the 'super mushroom' in developing Nintendo's Super Mario video game.– this really buries the lead. The important part is surely the mushrooms appearing in the game, with the Alice in Wonderland inspiration of secondary importance here.
The celebrated video game franchise The Last of Us– MOS:PUFFERY.
wiped off humanity– wiped out humanity, presumably.
turning infected into zombies– this is missing a definite article or a noun.
Further video games where mushrooms appear as health-boosting collectibles or poisonous mushrooms– that's an odd framing. Also poorly phrased.
Zelda: Breth of the Wild– typo.
A music gerne– typo.
A music gerne called Fungi from the British Virgin Islands is defined as a mixture of many styles and instruments.– does this actually have anything to do with fungi, the biological kingdom? According to the linked article, that's not where the name comes from.
The Czech composer and mycologist Václav Hálek (1937-2014) claimed to have created numerous musical works inspired by fungi.– claimed?
Václav Hálek– it is inappropriate to link to a Wikipedia article in a different language without making that obvious to the reader. Use Template:Interlanguage link instead, like this: Václav Hálek [cs].
American composer John Cage (1912-1992) was an enthusiastic amateur mycologist and co-founder the New York Mycological Society.– what's the relevance of this? Being a composer and an amateur mycologist does not in itself imply a connection between the to.
'Fossora' is the feminine declination of the Latin fossore, meaning "she who digs".– what's the relevance of this?
'Fossora' is the feminine declination of the Latin fossore, meaning "she who digs".– the cited source says "it is a word i made up".
feminine declination– the word you're looking for is declension.
The Czech composer and mycologist Václav Hálek [...]– already mentioned.
A non-exhaustive list of songs inspired by mushrooms (fungi) is given below:– why? This is WP:NOTTVTROPES.
made of transparent or opaque glass, although coloured glass was used when needed– that seems to cover most bases. What am I missing?
Fungi enter cuisine mostly as fruiting bodies (mushrooms).– is that really true? Yeasts and molds also have very central roles in cuisine.
mushrooms can be considered a novel culinary trend– according to whom?
The 'Shaggy ink cap' mushroom Coprinus comatus produces spores by deliquescing (liquefying, or melting) its cap into a black ink.– already mentioned above.
it is used in Mexico as the delicacy huitlacoche [...] in Mexico they are highly esteemed as a delicacy, where it is known as huitlacoche– extreme redundancy within the same paragraph, both in terms of repeated information and repeated links.
Huitlacoche is a source of the essential amino acid lysine, which the body requires but cannot manufacture. It also contains levels of beta-glucans similar to, and protein content equal or superior to, most edible fungi.– why discuss the nutritional value here?
Current research on psychoactive mushrooms shows promises for the treatment of mental-health ailments like chronic depression and anxiety.– why on Earth is this article making biomedical claims?
A 'mushroom counterculture' has been often fuelled by eccentric, unorthodox, and unfalsifiable hyphotheses and interpretations of the influence of (hallucinogenic) mushrooms in culture developments [...]– who is making this assertion? I seriously doubt the cited source by McKenna (who is used as an example of this) says this.
McKenna hyphotesis– double typo.
McKenna hyphotesis has been controversial– MOS:CONTROVERSIAL.
Hyphae are the most metabolically active structures of fungi, secreting high amounts of digestive enzymes in the surrounding environment to consume the growth substratum, as well as bioactive metabolites, including substances used in modern medicine ( antibiotic and antimicrobial drugs). Hyphae and mycelia grow by extension and branching, and fungi forming those structures are often referred to as 'filamentous fungi'.– relevance?
Mycelia and hyphae have seldomly been represented, showcased, transformed, or utilized in the traditional arts due to their invisible, ignored, and overlooked lifestyle and appearance.– source?
have seldomly been represented [...] due to their invisible, ignored, and overlooked lifestyle and appearance.– they have seldomly been represented because they are ignored and overlooked?
lifestyle and appearance– "lifestyle"?
enjoying increasing visibility, marketing, commercialization, and endorsement from celebrities– and Wikipedia articles like this one? Joking aside, this comes off as promotional.
In literature and fiction, hyphae and mycelia are considered (if at all) for their intrinsic properties of decomposition, contamination, and decay.– source?
The filamentous, prolific, and fast growth of hyphae and mycelia (like moulds) in suitable conditions and growth media often makes these fungal forms good subject of time-lapse photography.– according to whom?
imagery allegedly inspired by ergotism– if the qualifier "allegedly" is necessary, this doesn't belong. If it isn't necessary, it should be removed. Either way, this needs to be sourced.
Whereas non-fiction books about fungi often (if not always) include hyphae and mycelia, examples of hyphae and mycelia in literary fiction are much rarer in comparison to mushrooms and spores. When these fungal forms are included in work of fiction, they are often associated with elements of rot and decay.– unsourced.
fast, radial growth (also called isodiametric growth, that is, with same speed and size in all directions)– this is mentioned elsewhere and could be condensed significantly even if it weren't.
mycelia and hyphae are often used as time-lapse photography to present filamentous growth and/or decay– source?
its growth plasticity (e.g. the ability to take virtually any shape upon being cast in a desired form)– I believe "i.e." is intended here, rather than "e.g."
vernacularly called– conspicuous phrasing. The usual phrase is "commonly called", or sometimes "colloquially called". A simple "also called" would also do the trick here.
the Stradivarius violin– there are multiple Stradivarius violins, not just one.
produce sounds close to those from the Stradivarius violin– this is an WP:EXCEPTIONAL claim, and as such needs exceptional sourcing.
mixd into– typo.
Current collaborations– MOS:CURRENT.
Luxury fashion brands like Adidas, Stella McCartney, and Hermès are introducing vegan alternatives to leather made from mycelium.– comes off as promotional.
Remarkable evidence– MOS:FLOWERY.
Mycologist Paul Stamets famously wears a hat made of amadou.– famously? That needs to be backed up with reliable sources saying so, and I daresay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPqWstVnRjQ is not a WP:Reliable source.
Fungi has– subject–verb disagreement.
Fungal mycelia are used as leather-like material (also known as pleather, artificial leather, or synthetic leather), including for high-end fashion design products.– already covered above.
cruelty-free– that's a value-laden WP:LABEL.
A patent study covering 2009-2018 highlighted the current patent landscape around mycelial materials based on patents filed or pending.– relevance?
Mushrooms are traditionally the main form of fungi used for direct consumption in the culinary arts.– this is a subtly but significantly different claim than the one I questioned above. This version is much less dubious. That being said, it's not in the cited source.
an enormous variety– inappropriately emphatic language.
beverages such as beer, wine, sake, kombucha, coffee, soy sauce, tofu, cheese, or chocolate– not all of these are beverages.
just to name a few– inappropriately informal. Also redundant to "including".
The Michelin-star restaurant The Alchemist in Copenhagen– mentioning the Michelin star comes off as promotional.
Copenhagen (Danemark)– Denmark.
'mycelium-based seafood'– this quote does not appear in the cited source.
'mycelium-based bacon.'– this quote does not appear in the cited sources. See also MOS:LQ about punctuation placement.
Hapha and mycelium– typo.
gets increased attention in the contemporary art due to its growth and plasticity, and is occasionally the starting point for artworks in the contemporary art– repetitive phrasing.
the biotechnology-relevant fungus Aspergillus niger– why gloss it like that?
freely available at www.color.bio– I would suggest you review Wikipedia's policy on WP:External links.
Examples of fungal spores in the arts are rare due to their invisibility and difficulties to treat and manipulate as working matter.– source?
Notable exceptions are so called 'spore prints,' or glass sculptures by mycologist William Dillon Weston (1899-1953) representing magnified microfungi and spores (ascospores, basidiospores).– this is a general statement, but was presumably meant to be a specific one.
Notable exceptions– MOS:NOTABLE.
' spore prints,'– MOS:LQ.
Often, fungal spores are employed as an agent of infection and decay in literature and the graphic arts, whereas recently they are increasingly used in the contemporary art in a positive or neutral way to reflect about processes of transformation, interaction, decay, circular economy, and sustainability.– the cited source doesn't actually say this.
a flat, white or coloured surface– this is ambiguous. Does it refer to (1) a surface that is flat, and is additionally either white or coloured, or (2) a surface that might be flat, might be white, and might be coloured, but always one of those three?
spores prints– grammar.
Whereas non-fictional books about fungi cover spores in the context of fungal spore formation, dispersal, harvesting, or germination, works of literary fiction involving spores are generally linked to infection and decay, and thus have mostly a negative connotation.– source?
In stories where mushrooms are perceived or represented as threat, spores fulfill the same role.– source?
In the short story Come into My Cellar, by Ray Bradbury, for example, spores are depicted as an alien invasion.– see my earlier comments about this story.
The critically acclaimed and commercially successful video game franchise– MOS:PUFFERY.
by Sony Computer Entertainment– relevance of this detail?
( Part I, released in 2013; downloadable content adds-on The Last of Us: Left Behind, released in 2014; Part II, released in 2020)– seems like unnecessary detail.
An important part of the plot of The Last of Us game franchise revolves around vaccines against the fungal disease; as opposed to vaccination against viral and bacterial pathogens, research on vaccines for human fungal diseases lags behind, with currently no vaccine available against human fungal pathogens.– this goes way WP:OFFTOPIC.
The Last of Us Part II has been awarded best video game of 2020 by The Game Awards.– entirely irrelevant.
A television adaptation by HBO starring among others Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, and Nick Offerman as Bill, is due in January 2023.– outdated.
A television adaptation by HBO– why does it matter that it's by HBO?
starring among others Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, and Nick Offerman as Bill– the character names mean nothing to readers unfamiliar with the franchise. Who stars in the show is also not relevant to the topic of this article.
The comic strip by Dave Gibbon Come into My Cellar is based on Ray Bradbury's short story with the same name, where fungal spores are an alien entity taking over humanity by mind control, especially of children obsessed with growing mushrooms in their home basement.– again with this story. See my earlier comments about it.
An adaptation into Italian appeared for the famous comic series Corto Maltese in 1992 with the name Vieni nella mia cantina.– how does this relate to the topic of this article? It's presented entirely devoid of explanatory context.
in the hands of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae– "in the hands of" is inappropriate here (and when the same phrasing recurs later in the same paragraph). See MOS:CLICHE.
Blue cheese is cheese [...]– you don't say? The second "cheese" is redundant.
Naturalists illustrating their observations often created remarkable work of arts.– that's an opinion.
extremely common– inappropriately emphatic language.
contributed enormously– inappropriately emphatic language.
which is but one of– not particularly encyclopedic in tone.
Other testimonies of the indirect effect of yeasts in the arts are the numerous deities and myths are associated with wine and beer.– anacoluthon.
The field of ethnomycology focuses more on the influence of psychoactive fungi on human culture rather than on aspects such as medicine, food production practices, or cultural influence in the arts.– going a bit WP:OFFTOPIC.
Time-lapses photography– grammar.
Aside from various illustrations, lichens are very seldomly represented in the arts to their slow growth as well as their frailty towards maniputation.– seems to be missing a "due".
maniputation– typo.
Notable examples– MOS:NOTABLE.
Notable examples of yeasts, moulds or lichens in the arts include:– why the list? This is not TV Tropes.
Ernst Häckel– see my earlier comment about the name. This is also unsourced.
dying substances– I think this is meant to say "dyeing substances", i.e. substances used as dyes.
In the science fiction novel Trouble with Lichen (1960) by John Wyndham, a chemical extract from a lichen is able to slow down the aging process, with a profound influence on society– unsourced.
In Stephen King's horror short story Gray Matter (1973), a recluse man living with his son drinks a 'foul beer' and slowly transforms into an inhuman blob-like abomination that craves warm beer and shun light, and transmutes into a fungus-like fictional creature– unsourced.
a comedy which won numerous awards at international film festivals– unnecessary detail, comes off as promotional.
involves 'a young trombone player [...] trying to open an impossible bottle of wine [...] and some mold gets in his way– unpaired quotation mark.
In so-called ' mold paintings,' surfaces of buildings or sculptures are intentionally overgrown with moulds to create visually appealing effects– unsourced.
In so-called ' mold paintings,' surfaces of buildings or sculptures are intentionally overgrown with moulds to create visually appealing effects– stick to spelling it either "mold" or "mould". Switching back and forth looks unprofessional, especially when (as here) within a single sentence.
The musical provides freely available teaching resources– we are not their PR team. See WP:NOTPROMO.
however, during baking, microorganisms present in dough are most probably heat deactivated and thus harmless.– not in the cited source. This violates WP:NPOV by engaging in a dispute rather than describing it.
the homemade yogurt relied on the fermentation properties of lactic acid baceria (e.g. lactobacilli), rather than yeasts (fungi)– that would make it out of scope for this article then, now wouldn't it?
unlike bread, yogurt is a culture of living microorganisms– not in the cited source.
The praxis is thus considered a food hazard by the US Food and Drug Administration.– that's not actually what the source says. It says that the end product would be considered adulterated, and it gives a completely different reason as to why that is.
an artwork which wants to make the audience reflect about the role of yeast biotechnology to confront global issues of contemporary society– that's an appropriate way to describe it for the artist, or an exhibition, or the news media, but it's not appropriate for Wikipedia.
aestic objects– typo.
Physarum polycephalum is a slime mould ( myxomycete) and not a fungus– that would make it out of scope for this article then, now wouldn't it?
Due to its complex problem-solving abilities, the slime mould is used to mimic or investigate human behaviours.– unsourced.
Physarum polycephalum has been shown to exhibit characteristics similar to those seen in single-celled creatures and eusocial insects. For example, a team of Japanese and Hungarian researchers have shown P. polycephalum can solve the shortest path problem. When grown in a maze with oatmeal at two spots, P. polycephalum retracts from everywhere in the maze, except the shortest route connecting the two food sources.– what on Earth does this have to do with the topic of this article, fungi in art? This is neither a fungus nor art.
== The whole section is deleted from the page == CorradoNai ( talk) 03:50, 15 May 2023 (UTC)
This indirect influence of fungi in the arts can be broadly classified into three categories:– you really need to get this WP:ANALYSIS from the sources.
Of notable example– MOS:NOTABLE, grammar.
insofar part of their artworks have been likely created under the influence of fungal substances while they also depict the effect of fungal metabolites– this is rather difficult to parse.
== The whole section is deleted from the page == CorradoNai ( talk) 03:51, 15 May 2023 (UTC)
represent a treat– a threat, presumably.
damage them by means of mechanical, chemical, or aesthetic damage– damage them by means of damage? That's rather redundant.
damage them by means of mechanical, chemical, or aesthetic damage– mechanical and chemical damage would seem to be the processes by which aesthetic damage occurs. This is mixing apples and oranges, in other words.
An area of applied research focuses on limiting the growth, harm, and health hazard of mould growing inside buildings, often referred to as 'microbiology of the built environment.'– this doesn't seem to be related to art at all?
A recent study– MOS:RECENT.
xerophilic (tolerant to desiccation)– not the most helpful gloss as it still uses rather technical language. If I had to gloss it I might say "can withstand dry conditions".
Microorganisms like fungi are not only considered in the preservation of artworks do due their decaying and contaminating properties.– this appears to have been mistyped. I'm not entirely sure what it was meant to say.
==== The whole section is deleted form the page ==== CorradoNai ( talk) 03:52, 15 May 2023 (UTC) CorradoNai ( talk) 03:52, 15 May 2023 (UTC)
Artists and scientists jointly defined a framework for fruitful collaborations between (fungal) science and the arts.– this uses a large number of words to convey very little information.
The generally low visibility of fungi (other than mushrooms) in the arts can be correlated with the general knowledge and research on fungi, both of which lag behind in comparison with other life science disciplines– this sounds a lot like WP:Original research to me. If it comes from the sources it needs WP:INTEXT attribution, and if it doesn't it needs to be removed.
Mycology was named as a natural science discipline of its own in 1836 only– that doesn't strike me as particularly late, actually. It predates e.g. bacteriology and virology significantly, does it not? For that matter, it predates evolutionary biology. From what I can gather, it also predates ecology.
the fungi kingdom Funga was defined in 1969 only– redundant phrasing aside, the kingdom is called Fungi.
and even today conservation efforts on fungal biodiversity lag behind in comparison to those of species in other kingdoms of life like animals and plants.– overly argumentative in tone.
Currently, in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, only over 500 fungi are included, in comparison to over 58,000 plants and 12,000 insects.– I am unable to verify this from the cited source, though I'm sure the relevant information can be found somewhere on the webpage. However, this is just raw data. The phrasing rather forcefully implies that the number of fungi should be higher, but that's an assessment that unequivocally needs to come from WP:Reliable sources. Also MOS:CURRENT.
Several artistic explorations of fungi have as background, intention or goal the development of sustainable solutions to current environmental issues, or aim at raising awareness on these topics.– this is an example of a sentence that uses far more words than necessary to convey the point. Without even restructuring the sentence, rephrasing it as "Several artistic explorations of fungi
Several artistic explorations of fungi have as background, intention or goal the development of sustainable solutions to current environmental issues, or aim at raising awareness on these topics. These endeavors often involve a multi-disciplinary approach between artists and fungal practitioners, and transform or utilize fungi for the desired goal.—together consist of 49 words, but could be rewritten with as few as 18—"Sustainable solutions to environmental issues is a recurring theme, often used by artists working together with fungal practitioners."—while still conveying the main points (not that this is necessarily the best way to do it). Sometimes less is more, and this article suffers from a lack of brevity.
Occasionally, a commercial outcome beyond the purely artistic approach or experimentation is striven for or achieved.– this is not entirely relevant, and kind of sounds like PR-speak ("we want to make money, but are embarrassed to admit it"),
these approaches fall often within the realm of circular economy.– it's good to have links for terms like this that many readers will not be familiar with, but this is an instance where I think it also needs to be explained in the context where it appears.
Patents to intellectually protect the technological developments are often filed.– I think this goes without saying.
Examples of the use of fungi in sustainability approaches fall within production of fungus-based materials for personal use (vegan leather, house furniture) or as construction materials, or for alternative burial practices (bioremediation), just to name a few.– "Examples [...] fall within [...] just to name a few" is a very redundant phrasing. "Just to name a few" should also be avoided for reasons of being unencyclopedic in tone.
Fungus-derived material from mycelium are being developed– grammar.
Fungus-derived material from mycelium are being developed to create artificial leather for high-end fashion products– this is the third(?) time this is mentioned in the article.
and hold promises to be a sustainable alternative to animal-derived leather– extremely promotional in tone.
by international artists– what does "international artists" mean? It comes off as a euphemism for "foreigners".
More and more artists work with fungi [...]– is that "more and more artists" (an increasing number of artists) or "more and more, artists [...]" (to an increasing extent, artists [...])?
communicating the importance of fungi– WP:POV. This is endorsing that viewpoint.
birth complicacies– birth complications.
There are very few examples of museums entirely devoted to fungi (one example being the Museo del Hongo in Chile).– the first and second parts pull in different directions, so to speak. This would need to be rephrased to not sound incongruent.
relevant examples– "relevant" is a MOS:Word to watch that should be used only with care. It's not outright inappropriate here, but it is redundant.
Several relevant examples include:– as noted several times above, avoid lists like these.
fostering and supporting works able to stimulate dialogues– very promotional.
as for example from– grammar.
enhance the visibility of fungi– promo-speak.
The Fungi Foundation is the first non-governmental organisation dedicated to fungi– being the first is something they would mention to promote themselves, but it is not something that is relevant for Wikipedia to mention here.
signatories include Jane Goodall, Michael Pollan, Paul Stamets, Philipp Ball, Alan Rayner and many more– "include" and "and many more" are redundant to each other. This also comes off basically the same way as the "Hello, I'm Tom Hanks. The US government has lost its credibility, so it's borrowing some of mine." joke from The Simpsons.
and since 2023– it's 2023 now, so I'd say it's way too early to say "since 2023" (at least in this context). It's basically making a promise about the future, which runs afoul of WP:CRYSTAL.
The last report has been published in 2020.– last or latest? It also was published.
— Preceding unsigned comment added by CorradoNai ( talk • contribs)
First, I want to commend the article creator, CorradoNai for this ambitious project and for their time devoted to the subject and the desire to improve the encyclopedia. Hat’s off! Second, here are some issues that immediately jump out (sorry if some of these are redundant with the GA review above):
In general, Fungi in art is trying to do too much in one article and is much too sprawling and therefore very hard to follow. The article is trying to cover visual art, literature, cinema/TV, performing arts, comic books, video games, music, architecture, sculpture (which should be grouped with visual art), culinary art, contemporary art (which should be grouped with visual art), games, counterculture (which doesn’t seem to belong in the arts at all), graphic arts (which should be grouped with visual art), etc. It's trying to cover all these areas of knowledge across global geographic locations, and temporal historical and contemporary eras, but the organization of this seems fragmented. Some thoughts/critique regarding improvements:
1) The article is trying to do too many things, it would work better as multiple separate articles with a “See also” section that points to the related articles. The content would work much better as separate articles, for example:
2) The article jumps around between various fungal forms during the growth and fruiting cycle (mushrooms, mycelia/hyphae, spores) as part of its organizational structure which I don’t think is important to our general readership.
3) The article is too broad, yeasts, moulds and lichens don’t seem to belong here although they may be/are related, it’s just too confusing.
Improve the sourcing. The source-quality scripts, Novem Linguae’s “CiteHighlighter” and Headbomb’s “Unreliable” are revealing several red, orange and yellow highlighted sources, for example: Atlas Obscura (blog, however an interesting one), Siberian Times, numerous YouTube links used as sources, Vice, Mushroom Hour (streaming site), Evocative (commercial sales site), Forbes (contributor), several IMDb “sources”, FungiFlowsFun, Vice, Cosmopolitan, Times of India, Flossora, Huffington Post, and various primary sources or user-submitted content, etc. I think only high-quality sources should be used, and all of these lower-quality sources should be removed or replaced. See WP:RS for more information on what constitutes a reliable source.
Way too many External links, these should be kept to a minimum, see WP:EL for the guidance on External links. Currently there are 33, I suggest cutting these back to about 5 of the most important high-quality links.
In general, I think the article has too many examples, which seems to be contrary to the creator's wishes to add more examples. With all due respect, Wikipedia is not a hub for people to share their work and for other to be inspired
, that is what social media and fan-sites are for. I think the article should be trimmed such that only the most important examples are included (and are highly cited in independent, verifiable RS's) .
Thanks again for creating the article, I look forward to seeing how it evolves. Netherzone ( talk) 00:42, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
Maybe just a new title would be enough to fix this, "Fungi in art and popular culture" (art includes paintings and statues, not television show, films, etc.) No need to start over when so much is already written and researched. Randy Kryn ( talk) 13:03, 24 June 2023 (UTC)
This was a fork of mushrooms in art which already existed by CorradoNai because they didn't know how to move an article. It has now become an in popular culture article which we don't need. Suggest merging whatever is salvageable back to mushrooms in art and keeping it focused. The current version reads like a Wikipedia article from 2004. The site has changed a lot during that time. Viriditas ( talk) 23:05, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
extremely generous. Netherzone ( talk) 18:50, 13 December 2023 (UTC)
four separate articles in the lead section alone. It's very confusing that there is so much packed into this article. As written it is not functioning well as a BROADTOPIC article. Netherzone ( talk) 17:20, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
To start clean up and trimming, I will be moving the entire section on Mushrooms to the talk page, and write a short summary (leaving the link to the main article on Mushrooms in art intact). That content can then be moved by anyone from this talk page to the Mushrooms in art article. Netherzone ( talk) 21:49, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
NOTE: Moving content and references here from articlespace so it can be used to improve the Mushrooms in art as well as providing a resource here if there are additional or better examples to use in the summary. Any citation errors this may have caused will/can be fixed in future edits.
Contemporary artists are more interested in fungi than ever before. [4]
Given the mysterious, seasonal, sudden, and at times inexplicable appearance of mushrooms, as well as the hallucinogenic or toxic effects of some species, their depiction in ethnic, classic and modern art (around 1860–1970) is often associated in Western art with the macabre, ambiguous, dangerous, mystic, obscene, disgusting, alien, or curious in paintings, illustrations, and works of fiction and literature. [5] British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in his novel Sir Nigel: relevant?
In Asian or folk art, mushrooms are generally depicted in a more positive or mystical way than in Western art. [7] [8] [9]
Visual artists representing mushrooms have been very prolific throughout history. The Registry of Mushrooms in Works of Art, from the North American Mycological Association, curates an extensive virtual collection of mushrooms in the visual arts. [10] According to the registry, examples before the 15th century are rare, thus examples abound from European visual arts from 1500 onwards are the focal point. The registry includes periods such as the Renaissance, the Baroque, Flemish, and Romantic periods. [10]
The shaggy ink cap ( Coprinus comatus) and the common ink cap ( Coprinus atramentaria) mushrooms produce black ink which is used in drawing, illustration, and calligraphy. [11] [12]
Mushrooms have been found in art traditions around the world, including in western and non-western works. [13] Ranging throughout those cultures, works of art that depict mushrooms can be found in ancient and contemporary times. Often, symbolic associations can also be given to the mushrooms depicted in the works of art. For instance, in Mayan culture, mushroom stones have been found that depict faces in a dreamlike or trance-like expression, [14] which could signify the importance of mushrooms giving hallucinations or trances. Another example of mushrooms in Mayan culture deals with their codices, some of which might have depicted hallucinogenic mushrooms. [15] Other examples of mushroom usage in art from various cultures include the Pegtymel petroglyphs of Russia and Japanese Netsuke figurines. [13]
Examples of mushrooms being depicted in contemporary art are also prevalent. For example, a contemporary Japanese piece depicts baskets of matsutake mushrooms laid atop bank notes, signifying the association of mushrooms and prosperity. [13] Other examples of contemporary art depicting fungi include Anselm Kiefer's Über Deutschland and Sonja Bäumel's Objects not static and silent but alive and talking. [16] These contemporary works often outline themes greatly undercurrent in modern times, themes such as sustainable living, new materials, and ethical considerations associated with the science of fungi and biotechnologies. [16] In fact, working with fungi allows contemporary artists to create art that is interactive and performative. [17]
Mushroom symbolism has also appeared in Christian paintings. The panel painting by Hieronymus Bosch, The Haywain Triptych, is considered the first depiction of mushroom in modern art. [18] Another triptych by Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, depicts scenes very similar to those experienced under the effects of psychoactive mushrooms. [19] In fact, when considering the mushroom of Amanita muscaria, artistic representations throughout the ages show the association it has with psychotropic properties, being represented as being used for social, religious, and therapeutic purposes. [19]
Artists, painters, illustrators, naturalists, and scientists have depicted mushrooms in their artworks for millennia. Edible species, such as Caesar's mushroom ( Amanita caesarea) and the King bolete ( Boletus edulis), are more commonly depicted than toxic ones. Mushrooms abound in Italian, Flemish, Germanic, and Dutch Baroque landscapes and still lifes. Landscape paintings involving mushrooms occasionally depict mushroom or truffle hunting. [10]
Whereas historical British artworks tend to be considered to be influenced by a 'mycophobe' attitude, 19th-century Victorian fairy paintings depicting imaginary scenes involving fairies and other fantastic creatures often featured mushrooms. A great number of Victorian-era illustrators and children-book authors depicted mushrooms in their artworks, including Beatrix Potter, Hilda Boswell, Molly Brett, Arthur Rackham, Charles Robinson, and Cicely Mary Barker. [5]
Visual artists who depicted mushrooms include:
Amateur and professional photographs of mushrooms abound on the Internet. Non-fiction books about fungi, especially those involving the identification of fungi, often include photographs of fungal species and their fruiting bodies. The book by Scott Chimileski and Roberto Kolter Life at the Edge of Sight: A Photographic Exploration of the Microbial World showcases 'the invisible world waiting in plain sight,' including fungi. [29] Since 2005, the North American Mycological Association (NAMA) organises an annual Photography Art Contest on mushrooms and fungi. [30] [31]
Works of literary fiction involving mushrooms and fungi are often linked to infection, decay, toxicity, mystery, fantasy, and ambiguity, and thus have mostly a negative connotation. [5] Examples of mushrooms depicted or involved in a positive way include:
In line with the assumption by Robert Gordon Wasson and Valentina Pavlovna Wasson that Russian society traditionally has more affinity to mushrooms, [19] a scene of mushroom foraging in Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is associated with love, family, and a sense of commonality. [19] [5] During the Victorian era, fungi started to acquire a more playful, childish, or jolly role in works of literary fiction. [5] The author, artist, illustrator, and mycologist Beatrix Potter created meticulous and accurate illustrations of mushrooms, including in her children-book series of Peter Rabbit. [5]
Authors who have used fungi as a plot device include: [35]
Fungi are a common trope in science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy and crime fiction. In Ray Bradbury's " Come into My Cellar", mushrooms are alien invaders threatening society. The short story is one of the rare examples in which several forms of fungi appear (spores and mushrooms): In the story, an alien form of spores from fungi lands on Earth and compels humans, and kids in particular, to grow mushrooms and infect more persons, thus using humans as a medium of propagation of fungi through mind control. [36] Fungi have occasionally appeared in the murder mystery literature due to their toxicity. Crime and detective writer Agatha Christie has used mushrooms as murder weapons in her crime fiction. [5]
The use of (toxic) mushrooms in fiction does not often reflect reality, either because a misidentified species is used (for example, a non-toxic one), because the preparation or intake of the toxic is wrong (for example, when not enough toxin is present, or when it should be deactivated by cooking), or because the progress of poisoning is unrealistic (for example, if the toxin kills too quickly). [6] [37]
The "Bad Bug Bookclub" at Manchester Metropolitan University is a regular book club run by Joanna Verran that discusses literary works on microorganisms, including fungi. [38] The quarterly periodical FUNGI Magazine runs a column called Bookshelf Fungi reviewing fiction and non-fiction books on fungi.
Similar to in Western literature, fungi in Western culture poetry are often associated with negative feelings or sentiments. The poem The Mushroom (1896) by Emily Dickinson is unsympathetic towards mushrooms. American author of weird horror and supernatural fiction H. P. Lovecraft created a collection of cosmic horror sonnets with fungi as subjects called Fungi from Yuggoth (1929–30). Margaret Atwood's poem Mushrooms (1981) explores the topics of the life cycle and nature. failed verification The poem by Neil Gaiman, The Mushroom Hunters, is a poem touching, through the lens of mushroom hunting throughout history, on the topics of womanhood, human creation, and destruction. The poem was written for 'Universe in Verse,' a festival combining science with poetry, and won the Rhysling Award for best long poem in 2017. The poem features in a short animated video with the voice-over of Amanda Palmer. [39]
Several hundred Japanese haiku are about mushroom hunting. Many of them were written by poets of the Nara, Edo and Meiji periods, [40] such as:
Through storytelling and oral tradition, fungi have influenced mythology, folklore, and religions across civilizations and historical periods. [6] The psychoactive properties of certain fungi have contributed to the involvement of fungi in myth and folklore. [41] In her essay Jesus if a Fungal God, author Sophie Strand writes:
There are numerous deities associated with wine and beer, which is an indirect effect of fungi in the arts. Fungi play a role in several religions, for example through fermentation (e.g. wine) and leavening (e.g. bread). In the Parable of the Leaven, one of the Parables of Jesus, the growth of the Kingdom of God is akin to the leavening of bread through yeast. According to Matthew 13:33 (and, similarly, to Luke 13:20-21):
However, yeast is associated with corruption in other passages of the New Testament, as in Luke 12:1:
Some scholars argue that the Egyptian God of the afterlife Osiris is a personification of entheogenic mushrooms. As evidence, they indicate that Egyptian crowns are shaped like primordia of Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms. The Egyptian tale known as Cheops and the Magicians illustrates the growth of mushrooms on barley. [45] In the Chinese classic tale The Mountain and the Sea, the soul of a young woman becomes a mushroom as a symbol of immortality. In Lithuanian and Baltic mythology, fungi are considered the fingers of Velnias, the God of the underworld, reaching up from the underground to feed the poor. [6] In Slovenia, there is a folk ritual to roll on the ground during thunder as a way to increase the amount of mushrooms harvested. [46] Baltic and Ugric religions include mushroom elements, including a "Mother of Mushrooms". The popular tale The War of the Mushrooms is told in several Slavic cultures. (After the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, an exhibition at the Ukrainian Museum in New York revisited the classic story in light of current events. [47]) The supernatural being Baba Yaga in Slavic folklore is often associated with mushrooms. In some Russian tales, it often appears as a villainous wizard called Mukhomor, literally 'poison mushroom,' which is assumed to be derived from the fly agaric. [8] [48]
The fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is a mushroom with characteristic red cap and white dots and has greatly infiltrated folklore with mainstream popularity.
According to several interpretations, the legendary figure of Santa Claus may have been influenced by the fly agaric; evidence includes the use by Saami shamans in the Lapland region, who would visit the homes of people by reindeer-drawn sleds and enter through the chimney when the entrance door was stuck by snowfalls; the fondness of reindeers in eating fly agaric mushrooms; the belief by Saami people that whoever eats an Amanita muscaria will resemble it, becoming among other things, plump and reddish; and the sense of flying that consumption of fly agaric might induce. [49]
The stinkhorn Phallus indusiatus (or "veiled lady") has entered folklore across many cultures, probably due to its peculiar shape. In French, P. indusiatus is commonly called le satyre voilé ('the veiled satyr,' from the male nature spirit in Greek mythology). According to ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson, P. indusiatus was consumed in Mexican divinatory ceremonies on account of its suggestive shape. On the other side of the globe, New Guinea natives consider the mushroom sacred. [50] In Nigeria, the mushroom is one of several stinkhorns given the name Akufodewa by the Yoruba people. The name is derived from a combination of the Yoruba words ku ("die"), fun ("for"), ode ("hunter"), and wa ("search"), and refers to how the mushroom's stench can attract hunters who mistake its odour for that of a dead animal. [51] The Yoruba have been reported to have used it as a component of a charm to make hunters less visible in times of danger. In other parts of Nigeria, they have been used in the preparation of harmful charms by ethnic groups such as the Urhobo and the Ibibio people. The Igbo people of east-central Nigeria called stinkhorns éró ḿma, from the Igbo words for "mushroom" and "beauty". [52]
Jews have a long tradition of eating mushrooms, which are considered Kosher in Jewish dietary law, and mushrooms have been referred to as "Jew's Meat" at least in parts of current Germany (Rhineland area), where the term is used as a dialect term for the German "Pilz" according to the Rheinisches Wörterbuch . [53] Mushrooms have been used as an instrument for anti-Semitic discrimination or propaganda over the centuries. This has a disparaging connotation, especially during the Middle Ages, when mushrooms were considered toxic and disgusting. In the infamous 1938 children-book Der Giftpilz ( transl. The poisonous mushroom) from Nazi Germany, Jews are depicted as poisonous and difficult to distinguish from ' Gentiles'. [16]
There is a large corpus of literature on mushrooms, including foraging, identifying, growing, and cultivating fungi. The book The Mushroom at the End of the World by Chinese-American anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing on matsutake mushrooms offers insights into the cultural relevance and the significance of fungi for modern society, circularity, and decay. [54] Authors of non-fictional books about fungi contribute to the increased popularity and development of mycology, fungal ecology, mycoremediation, fungal conservation, biocontrol, medicinal fungi, mushroom gathering and identification, and fungal research. [55] [56] [57] [58]
Adaptations of literary fiction about fungi into motion pictures include the 2016 British post-apocalyptic science fiction horror movie The Girl with All the Gifts, based on the novel with the same title; and the 1963 Japanese horror film Matango (マタンゴ) directed by Ishirō Honda, partially based on William Hope Hodgson's short story The Voice in the Night (1907). The documentary Fantastic Fungi (2019), primarily led by mycologist Paul Stamets, presents the world of fungi using time-lapse photography. [59] The documentary The Mushroom Speaks (2001) by Marion Neumann covers topics such as decay, bioremediation, and symbiosis by following scientists, experts, and fungal pioneers. [60]
Film festivals dedicated to fungi include the Fungi Film Festival (since 2021), by Radical Mycology author Peter McCoy; [61] and the UK Fungus Day Film Festival (since 2022), by the British Mycological Society. [62]
The American stand-up comedian and satirist Bill Hicks drew inspiration from Terence McKenna's ' Stoned Ape Theory' (that psilocybin was crucial in the development of human nature [63]) in his 1993 show Revelation. [6] [64]
In The Smurfs, smurfs inhabit houses resembling mushrooms. American fantasy and science fiction comic book artist Frank Frazetta illustrated the cover image of the 1964 edition of the novel The Secret People (1935) by John Beynon (pseudonym of John Wyndham), in which fictive 'little people' inhabit areas with giant mushrooms. In Nintendo's Super Mario video game, the 'super mushroom' helps the character grow in size. [5] The video game franchise The Last of Us is set in a post-apocalyptic United States, after spores of a mutant fungus wiped out humanity, turning infected people into zombies. Other video games where mushrooms appear include Skyrim (2011), Stardew Valley (2016), and Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017). [65]
Mushrooms have an influence on music as a subject, cultural reference, or medium for music creation. Numerous musicians, bands, composers, and lyricists mentioned or drew inspiration from fungi. Music can be created utilizing fungi, as in the process of bio-sonification. American composer John Cage (1912–1992) was an enthusiastic amateur mycologist and co-founder of the New York Mycological Society who often merged his two passions in his artworks. [66]
Numerous musicians, bands, composers, and lyricists mentioned or drew inspiration from fungi, like the Israeli psychedelic trance band Infected Mushroom, the US heavy metal band Mushroomhead, Russian romantic composer Modest Mussorgsky's (1839-1881) song Gathering Mushrooms, Igor Stravinsky's (1882-1971) How the Mushrooms went to War, and many more. [6] In Women Gathering Mushrooms, the musicologist Louis Sarno (1954-2017) recorded women from the Central Africa Mbenga pygmy tribe of the Aka (also Biaka, Bayaka, Babenzele) sideclinging while collecting mushrooms, resulting in a polyphonic composition. According to mycologist and author Merlin Sheldrake, the activity of the gatherers above ground mirrors the fungal life below ground, as "mycelium is polyphony in bodily form". [67] Icelandic avant-garde musician Björk's 2022 album Fossora (including tracks such as Mycelia, Sorrowful Soil, and Fungal City) is referred to as her "mushroom album". [68] 'Fossora' can be translated from Latin into "she who digs". [69] [70] The rap artist 'FungiFlows' composes lyrics inspired by fungi and mushrooms while wearing a fly-agaric-shaped hat. [71] The Czech composer and mycologist Václav Hálek (1937–2014) is said to have composed over 1,500 symphonies inspired by fungi, including the composition called Mycosymphony. [6] [72]
A non-exhaustive list of songs inspired by mushrooms (fungi) is given below:
Fungi are occasionally a direct medium for the creation of music. With the use of sonification and synthezisers, musicians and bioartists are able to create sounds and music by converting mushrooms' bioelectric signals. [73] [74] [75] The 'Nanotopia Midnight Mushroom Music' is a radio station devoted to streaming mushroom-generated music. Some artists creating music by sonicating mushrooms note that different mushrooms produce different sounds: for example, Ganoderma lucidum produces melodic sounds, while Pleurotus ostreatus produces constant sounds. [76]
In architecture and sculpture, mushrooms are mostly represented or showcased. Mushrooms are carved in buildings or depicted in sculptures or potteries, like pre-Columbian pottery mushrooms from Mesoamerica. [77] [78] At the entrance of Park Güell by Catalan modernist architect Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926), the Porter's Lodge pavilion features a lookout tower with a mushroom-shaped dome, probably inspired by Amanita muscaria or by stinkhorns. [79] [80] The sculpture Triple Mycomorph by Bernard Reynolds (1915–1997) at Christchurch Mansion holds a resemblance with the stinkhorn mushroom Phallus indusiatus. [81] Mushrooms are occasionally showcased by artists who collect, manipulate, preserve, and exhibit them, as in the 'Mind The Fungi' exhibition (2019-2020) at Futurium in Berlin (Germany). [82] [83] [84]
The mycologist William Dillon Weston (1899-1953; sometimes also spelled Dillon-Weston [85]) created glass sculptures of microfungi, mostly plant pathogens, to fight bouts of insomnia. The artworks represent either magnified fungi (usually up to 400X times for fungi; up to 1200X for spores) or real-size plants affected by fungi (like in Ustilago maydis and Phytophthora infestans) and are made mostly of transparent or opaque glass. The sculptures are mostly between 5–20 cm in size and often do not have a base and stand on the mycelium. [86] Almost a hundred glass sculptures are conserved at the Whipple Museum in Cambridge (UK). Fungi represented are among others species from the genera Alternaria, Botrytis, Penicillium, Cordyceps, Sclerotinia, Fusarium, Puccinia as well as spores ( ascospores, basidiospores). [87] [88] The other known example of glass sculptures representing (among others) fungi is the Blaschka Glass Flowers at Harvard Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts (US). [87]
Fungi enter cuisine mostly as fruiting bodies (mushrooms), yeasts, or moulds. Mushrooms are a source of protein, a staple in many cultures and cuisines, and a common ingredient in many recipes worldwide. The North American Mycological Association (NAMA) hosts a series of resources to encourage all aspects of 'mycophagy.' Most mushrooms sold commercially are the button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), commonly known as champignons. Many mushrooms, including some coveted in haute cuisine, like truffles and boletus, cannot be cultivated and need to be harvested. Due to their dietary properties and their suitability as a meat substitute, mushrooms can be considered a novel trend, including the cultivation and consumption of species that only recently became popular in cooking, like Cordyceps. [89] [90] [91] Many fungi are considered delicacies in cuisine and gastronomy. Truffles, which are occasionally confused with tubers (storage organs in plants, like potatoes), are subterranean fruiting bodies (that is, mushrooms that grow below ground) of certain fungi belonging to the genera Tuber, Geopora, Peziza, Choiromyces, and others. Truffles have developed a distinctive aroma as a spore-dispersion strategy: Instead of relying on wind and other mechanical means, truffles attract animals that eat them and carry their spores to new locations after defecation. [11] Both the mushroom and the black ink of C. comatus and Coprinopsis atramentaria (the 'Common ink cap') are edible, but adverse effects might be felt if consumed together with alcohol. For this reason, C. atramentaria is also called "tippler's bane". [6]
Contemporary artworks involving fungi usually handle or utilize mycelia, yeasts, and other fungal forms rather than mushrooms. Fungi are occasionally used conceptually (that is, to communicate their capabilities and potential). [92] The video and light artist Philipp Frank creates so-called 'projection mapping' by casting light effects on mushrooms growing in nature in the 'Funky Funghy' project. [93] [94]
Plant pathology scientist Lisa Vaillancourt at the University of Kentucky developed a 'Fungal Mating Game' based on standard card decks as an educational tool for students to better understand the process and concept of fungal mating using the mating of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast), Neurospora crassa, Ustilago maydis, and Schizophyllum commune as an example. The game can be played both collaboratively and competitively. [95] [96]
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Netherzone ( talk) 18:42, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
This should be a separate article, Yeasts, molds and lichens in art or some sort of similar name.
Many fungi do not reproduce and disperse by spores. Instead, they live as single cells and reproduce by budding or fission as in yeasts, or live in a symbiosis with an algal or cyanobacterial partner as in lichens. Despite being unicellular, yeasts can reproduce sexually by mating and can occasionally grow in a filamentous way. [1] Moulds do form spores ('asexual spores') but no mushrooms, and grow into filaments (hyphae and mycelia) which thrive in moist environments and spoil food. Moulds, like those which spoil food, are major natural producers of antibiotics, like penicillin.
Yeasts, moulds, and lichens did not enter into the arts very often and their direct influence in the arts remains modest. Indirectly, yeasts have influenced art, as alcohol fermentation has contributed to different cultures around the globe and across time; in La traviata (1853) by Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, for example, one of the best-known opera melodies is ' Libiamo ne' lieti calici' (in English, translated into "Let's drink from the joyful cups"), which is one of numerous brindisi (toast) hymn. Other testimonies of the indirect effect of yeasts in the arts are the numerous deities and myths associated with wine and beer. Yeasts and moulds are often an agent of decay and contamination in the arts, whereas recently they are increasingly used in contemporary art in a positive or neutral way to reflect on processes of transformation, interaction, decay, circular economy, and sustainability. [2] [3]
Examples of yeasts, moulds or lichens in the arts include:
The musical theatre show The Mould That Changed the World is a show running both in the US (in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia) and the UK (in Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland) which centers around the life and legacy of Alexander Fleming, the Scottish discoverer of the antibiotic penicillin and 1945 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine. [15] [16] Alexander Fleming discovered in 1928 during his work as bacteriologist that bacteria growing on a Petri dish were inhibited by a mould contamination, namely from a fungus of the genus Penicillium, from which the antibiotic name 'penicillin' derives. The story involves jumps in time to highlight the legacy of the discovery of antibiotics and is partly set during the Great War, when Alexander Fleming served as a private, as well as the personification of some characters (e.g. Mother Earth). The musical has been developed for educational purposes to raise awareness against the tremendous, worldwide threat that the rise of antimicrobial resistance poses. [17] [18] The musical provides teaching resources [15] and has been developed with the participation of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC). [16] The musical choir is composed of both professional singers and actors as well as health care professionals, lab technicians, and scientists, and is an example of an artistic project merging science and the arts. [15]
The dance contest for scientists called ' Dance your Ph.D.' sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an annual competition established in 2008 encouraging communication and education of complex scientific topics through interpretative dance. All scientific fields and areas of research are covered ( biology, chemistry, physics, and social science), and several contestant entries involved fungi, including some winners. The 2014 winner was plant pathologist and aerial acrobat Uma Nagendra from the University of Georgia (Athens) with Plant-Soil Feedbacks After Severe Tornado Damage, a trapeze-circus dance representing the effect of extreme environmental events (like tornadoes) on tree seedlings and the positive effect those events can have with regard to withstanding phytopathogenic fungi. [19] The 2022 winner was Lithuanian scientist Povilas Šimonis from Vilnius University with Electroporation of Yeast Cells, a dance illustrating the effect of electroporation (a method involving pulses of electricity to deactivate cells, or make them more porous and prone to acquire extracellular DNA, a crucial step in genetic engineering) on yeasts. [20]
In the contemporary arts, works involving fungi are often interactive and/or performative and tend to transform and utilize fungi rather than merely represent and showcase them. [21] In her work, Myconnect (2013), bioartist Saša Spačal invites the audience to interact with the artwork, involving Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) or Oyster mushrooms (from the genus Pleurotus), which takes the form of a capsule connecting the human with the fungus on a sensory level. [21] Bioartists use yeasts to provoke a reflection on genetic engineering. Slovenian intermedia artist Maja Smrekar's created yoghurt using genetically-modified yeast with a gene from the artist herself in Maya Yoghurt (2012). [22] In 2015, the blogger and feminist Zoe Stavri baked sourdough bread using yeast she isolated from her own vaginal yeast infection using a Dildo, which she then mixed with flour and water and let leaven, and finally ate. [23] [24] [25] The activity, which she documented both on her blog posts and on social media, tagging it with the hashtag #cuntsourdough, caused a lot of discussion on social media, including repulsion, hate messages, and food safety concerns, as the practice did not involve axenic isolation of the leavening yeast; however, during baking, microorganisms present in the dough are most probably heat deactivated and thus harmless. [23] As the activist herself noted: "People have been making and eating sourdough [with wild yeasts] for millennia." [26] People had experimented before with microorganisms from the vaginal microbiota to create food and incite a reflection on the topic of food fermentation and female bodily autonomy and self-determination.
The exhibition Fermenting Futures (2022) by bioartists Alex May and Anna Dumitriu in collaboration with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) is an artwork focusing on the role of yeast biotechnology confronting global issues of contemporary society. The artist cultured and showcased fermentation flasks of Pichia pastoris used for the bioconversion of carbon dioxide into biodegradable plastics. The artwork The Bioarchaeology of Yeast recreates by moulding the biodeterioration marks left by certain yeasts, like black yeasts, on work of art and sculptures, and displays them as aesthetic objects, reflecting on the process of erosion; the installation Culture used CRISPR technology to confer to a non-fermenting strain of Pichia pastoris the ability to ferment and work as a leavening agent as the baker's yeast. [28] A team of artists and researchers developed novel art techniques using the model (that is, widely studied in laboratory research) mould Aspergillus nidulans. The artist-scientist team described the development of two new techniques: 'Fungal Dot Painting' and 'Etched Fungal Art.' In Fungal Dot Painting, akin to pointillism where small dots unite to compose an image, fungal conidia are inoculated into agar droplets which are then deposited on a dark surface of black acrylic glass for contrast, and incubated at the desired condition to allow fungal growth. In 'Etched Fungal Art', an acrylic glass surface modified by etching (lathing or printmaking) is poured over with a suspension of fungal conidia in an agar-based substrate, and then incubated to permit fungal growth into the etched channels. Both art forms allow for temporal dynamism, insofar as being composed of living fungal organisms they change and evolve over time. [27]
References
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