ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the potential of performativity studies to extend knowing beyond the human in contemporary naturalculturaltechnological performative arts. Such performances not only stage ‘polyphonic assemblages’ (Lowenhaupt-Tsing, 2015), i.e. open-ended entanglements of human and non-human ways of beings, but also foster new experiential and relational ways of thinking and being in the world. Taking the complicated and dynamic lifeways of matsutake mushrooms, an embodiment of polyphonic assemblages, the paper scrutinises art and science projects which mobilise various species of fungi in order to problematise three received notions in the contemporary humanities. Analysing the Fungi Mutarium speculative design installation by the Austrian LIVIN collective, the author shows that knowing in polyphonic assemblages may be crucial for the survival of humans and non-humans on a damaged planet. Examining the Mother’s Hand Taste (Son-Mat) bioart installation (2017) by Korean artist Jiwon Woo and Dutch mycologist Han Wösten, the author shows that polyphonic assemblages problematise traditional models of individual and collective cultural identity. Finally, by looking at the Growing Geometries – Tatooing Mushrooms bioart installation (2015–2016), he shows that mushrooms posit non-progressive modes of development that could serve as an alternative to the traditional teleology of progress in Western modernity.
