Farewell Polycephalum
My relationship with PP
Last semester I started working with the the single cell organism Physarum Polycephalum. I spent a lot of time figuring out how it grows the best. How to feed it. How to "store" it. Right after Christmas or during Christmas 2018 I was at a point where I finally felt comfortable with the organism. The days got longer again and the temperature slowly changed to milder temperatures. Polycephalum started getting even more comfortable and grew and grew. From now on I spent more and more time with changing petri dishes, taking pictures, feeding.
After some time it became that strong and fast that I could see it move with my naked eye and I needed to change the dishes every few hours as it started to climb out of it in to my closet and spread all over my Blurays and such.
Exhibition
In April 2019 I was part of "republic of spirits". An one night only exhibition project for the founding day of the Bauhaus 100 years ago. My setup was experimental and hands on. I wanted to share my passion and knowledge with all the people passing by. So I created a lab like environment with basic stuff you would find normally in a community lab. Easy for everyone to use. I took Polycephalum, Euglena and Pyrocystis fusiformis with me and let people discover it, ask questions and take PP home.
Project
In over half a year I kind of started having a serious relationship with Polycephalum. When I received my first sample of PP it was weak (because of winter times and my leck of experience) and I killed it several times. I was frustrated and fascinated at the same time. Sometimes I hated it because it grew all over the place and I had to clean everything. But from the very beginning I knew that it was living and that I have some sort of a responsibility towards it. Because of this whole relationship it is time to say goodbye to PP as the Petri dish is not its natural habitat. I am trying to get PP out of the intensive care of the nursery or shelter I gave him and go back to where it belongs too. And as in the area of Weimar PP is never seen before he might feel comfortable in the Ilm Park or the woods around town. Let's see.
First step
I started first to put him with the Petri dish into a box of cardboard and watered it from time to time.
It worked out pretty well and it started to grow into the box and even out of it.
2nd step
As this is still not so close to it's natural habitat I went to the forest to get a few natural materials for a nature box for PP. I collected dead wood, moss, grass, leaves, soil and of course not intended insects, bugs.
After a few days Polycephalum went through the whole live cycle and in the end built sporangia. I left it in the box to see if it at some point comes back to life. So far it doesn't. I also consider to set it free in the parc.
Soil
I collected some fresh soil in the parc and put it in a jar and Polycephalum on top.
