Mission

Our aim is to investigate it within our local communities. What can we learn from slime mold that can help us create an equitable society? What can be gleaned from biocultures that can help us reimagine borders and immigration? What would a future look like with decentralized information? The STL helps communities look to slime mold to envision vibrant, diverse futures through speculative design and microbiology.

Why Slime Mold?
Physarum polycephalum

Slime mold is a bright, vivid, living monoculture. Due to its ability to grow in the pattern of nodes and branches, technologists have been using it as a tool and medium to represent a wide array of efficient systems, from the functionality of the Internet to the decision making patterns of algorithmic artificial intelligence. Once mistakenly classified as a part of the fungi animal kingdom, this fascinating eukaryotic organism has the remarkable capacity to both aggregate into a multicellular structure as well as live freely as single cells.

It's segregation to the fringes of the sociataly applauded decompositional systems has left it largely unresearched, under explored and often misrepresented. We see slime mold for its metaphoric familiarity to the othered experience. We see its beauty, its immense potential to enrich ecological landscapes and we are here to be empowered with and through it to liberate new methods of thinking about the future, creating art and empathetically connecting us with marginalized sectors.

Physarum polycephalum or slime mold is an informal name given to several kinds of unrelated eukaryotic organisms that can live freely as single cells, but can aggregate together to form multicellular reproductive structures. Slime molds were formerly classified as fungi but are no longer considered part of that kingdom.[1] Although not related to one another, they are still sometimes grouped for convenience within the paraphyletic group referred to as kingdom Protista.They feed on microorganisms that live in any type of dead plant material. They contribute to the decomposition of dead vegetation, and feed on bacteria, yeasts, and fungi. For this reason, slime molds are usually found in soil, lawns, and on the forest floor, commonly on deciduous logs. However, in tropical areas they are also common on inflorescences and fruits, and in aerial situations (e.g., in the canopy of trees). In urban areas, they are found on mulch or even in the leaf mold in rain gutters, and also grow in air conditioners, especially when the drain is blocked.

News

11/20/24 - 11/23/24. Tampa Fl. - American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting - PPP @ AAA: Plasmodial Protocols in Praxis

3/29/2022 - Online - This Plus That - Slime Mold + Social Justice with Ashley Jane Lewis

11/23/19, New York, NY - Culturhub - Slime Tech Lab: Testing the Borders

Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler, the renowned science fiction author, found inspiration in the curious behavior of slime molds. Their ability to form complex networks and work collectively to solve problems sparked her imagination and resonated with her ongoing exploration of themes like interconnectedness, adaptability, and the shifting boundaries between individual and collective identities.

This fascination is most vividly reflected in her Xenogenesis series, where the alien Oankali species share striking similarities with slime molds. The Oankali’s capacity to merge and exchange genetic material mirrors Butler’s interest in the fluidity of identity and the transformative potential of radical interconnectedness.

For those of us engaging with her work, Butler offers more than compelling stories—she provides a framework for rethinking entrenched ideas about hierarchy, non-human agency, and societal structures. Her vision challenges us to imagine new possibilities for existence and evolution, while reshaping how we understand our relationships with each other and the broader world.

Donna Haraway

Donna Haraway, a leading feminist theorist and scholar of science studies, is widely recognized for her concept of "situated knowledge." She contends that knowledge is not universal or entirely objective; instead, it emerges from the specific social, cultural, and historical contexts in which individuals are embedded.

Haraway highlights how our understanding of the world is shaped by our embodied experiences, relationships, and positions within systems of power. She critiques the idea of a neutral, detached observer and advocates for a more reflexive, self-aware approach to producing knowledge—one that acknowledges its partial and contingent nature.

When it comes to nonhuman species, Haraway encourages us to view our relationships with animals and other organisms as deeply interconnected and complex. She challenges anthropocentrism, urging a more empathetic, ethical stance in how we engage with nonhuman beings.

Haraway's work has had a significant impact on fields such as science studies, feminist theory, and animal studies. Her ideas inspire us as researchers to think critically about hegemonic notions of knowledge and power.

Resources

Bahng, Aimee. “Plasmodial Improprieties: Octavia E. Butler, Slime Molds, and Imagining a Femi-Queer Commons.” Queer Feminist Science Studies: A Reader, edited by CYD CIPOLLA et al., University of Washington Press, 2017, pp. 310–26..

Butler, Octavia E.. Parable of the Sower. United States, Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993.

Butler, Octavia E.. Xenogenesis. United States, Warner Books, 1989.