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Roots and Spores

Roots and Spores

Bleach Cup fungus in moss

bleach cup fungus, photo: Elspeth Mitchell. Used under creative commons licence CC BY.

Project overview

Roots and Spores is a pilot participatory research project in Hull that brings together young people to explore fungi as a source of connection, creativity, transformation, queerness and diversity. Through a series of creative workshops, participants will investigate how fungi’s modes of living and growing can help us think differently about identity, community and ecology. Blending mycology (a ‘queer discipline’ that thrives in unexpected places) with artistic practice, the project invites participants to experiment, collaborate and imagine new ways of understanding the world around them. Like fungi transforming decay into new life, Roots and Spores seeks renewal in the networks of care and collaboration that bind people, species and places together.

Project team

What inspired you to develop this project?

Roots and Spores grew from our shared belief that fungi can teach us to live differently. Elspeth’s fascination with fungi and her research into ecofeminism and the cultural politics of ecology meets Lauren’s long-standing work with art, ecological practice and communities in Hull. Together were drawn to fungi’s capacity to connect, decompose and regenerate, and to the way their life processes mirror feminist and queer notions of care, interdependence and transformation. Building on our collaboration through the University of Leeds Cultural Institute’s Climate Lab, we wanted to create a space for young people to explore these ideas creatively — learning from fungi as both teachers and collaborators.

What are you hoping to achieve with your project?

We hope Roots and Spores will support queer young people in Hull to build confidence, creativity and ecological awareness through collective making, reflection and exploration. Rooted in ecofeminist and queer ecological thought and practice, the project values care, reciprocity and interconnection. Participants will act as co-researchers, cultivating fungi, making art and exploring what these processes reveal about identity, kinship and sustainability. Our aim is to amplify young people’s voices in conversations about ecology and climate justice, showing how creative, queer and ecological practices can nurture more caring ways of living together.

What are you most looking forward to in this project?

We’re most excited about the unpredictable, living nature of the process — the relationships, ideas and artworks that will grow from it. Roots and Spores embraces transformation and renewal. We look forward to learning alongside the young participants, seeing how queer, creative, mycological and ecological perspectives combine in practice.