What is Fungi Name?

Fungi Name is a project that combines art, machine learning, mycology, and anthropology to explore the different names given to fungi around the world. The project aims to challenge the ways we see the natural world around us by seeing it through the eyes and names various places give them as well as through the originality of algorithms trained on fungal images. The objective of this project is to make art that incorporates the different names fungi have around the world as well as being a platform and database with the aims of spreading and generating fungal knowledge.

Inspiration

Fungi Name began with a trip to a flea market in Eastern Europe. I somehow ended up looking for a fungi field guide while there. Since then wherever I go I try and get a mushroom field guide. This has resulted in me accumulating several guides from all over the world. As a Mycologist and Anthropologist, the question arose of what to do with all this knowledge, what about it I found so interesting. People around the world see the same mushrooms but call them different things. Sometimes the names will only be a localization of the scientific name, others will have unique and untranslatable names. This variety tells us something about different relationships to those same mushrooms. Given the breadth and diversity within the Kingdom of Fungi and the linguistic variety in their names, how is one lone researcher to present such information? Fungi Name is an attempt to answer this question.

What can be expected

The webpage will be updated as time goes by, adding more species to the species list as well as more languages from more sources. Currently the first batch of species consists of 533 species with plenty of sources already that will be listed below as well as on each species page. News can be received through our newsletter. In our Updates section visitors will find short articles on the themes of the project. VR Galleries are an experimental idea whose implementation will be in flux as the project moves forward. The goal of the galleries will be to display art pieces generated throughout the project's lifetime as well as art relating to Fungi. Finally, if you would like to contribute with your own experiences relating to fungi please head to our contact/survey page to find a list of questions.

About the author

I come from a part of México where Fungi are not popular. In fact, when I speak to people here about this project, they are surprised to know the richness of common names that exist in the world. I started becoming familiar with Fungi when I moved to Toronto where I did my undergraduate studies in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Cell Systems Biology at the University of Toronto. For my undergraduate thesis I did research at the Mycology lab at the Royal Ontario Museum. Afterwards I got my master's at the University of London School of African and Oriental Studies in Social Anthropology. My thesis was Fungi related. At the moment I am taking a break from my PhD, still in Anthropology, and still about Fungi. From an early age I was also taught how to draw and paint, so this project is really a culmination of a lot of things I personally enjoy and want to share.