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17-25 October 2026

Uneasy Matter

An Impalpable Realm

Hosted by Filippo Caprioli

This project is now archived and was part of DDW22

This project is part of
Radical Enough?
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Uneasy Matter as Living Installation
Uneasy Matter as Living Installation
Project: Filippo Caprioli Photo: Paul Cochrane
Uneasy Matter investigates how the ancestral symbiotic relationship between mushrooms and plants could interact with a disturbing new synthetic reality: the plastisphere. Uneasy Matter enquires how other organisms perceive man-made and man-convenient materials? Which trace Anthropocene is leaving?

Uneasy Matter - Non-Human Relation with Synthetic Materials

Every relevant climatic event happened on the Earth in its whole history lefts some traces on the surface of the planet. Ice ages, floods, the appearance and disappearance of plants and animals due to specific conditions are visible in the geological strata of our planet. Currently we are living the epoch of the Anthropocene. With this word is possible to define the uncountable consequences that we - as ‘dominant’ species as we see it - are causing to the enormous ecosystem that we are supposed to share with millions of other species. One of clearest issues that we are generating and perpetrating is the formation of what is now called Plastisphere, a layer of plastic materials debris that entered Biosphere – the sphere of life and living systems – and is now nearly impossible to remove. Uneasy Matter investigates the ancestral symbiotic relations between fungi and roots called mycorrhiza, with the addition of plastic waste: a material that recently appeared on the planet. The aim is to demonstrate and make visible that our waste is affecting every single organisms inside several ecosystems, perceived as new toxic but already familiar compounds or nests or possible food.
Uneasy Matter as Disturbant Design Piece
Uneasy Matter as Disturbant Design Piece
Project: Filippo Caprioli Photo: Paul Cochrane
Mycelium, Roots and Plastic Interaction
Mycelium, Roots and Plastic Interaction
Project: Filippo Caprioli Photo: Paul Cochrane
Lab Experiments of Mycelium Growing on Plastics
Lab Experiments of Mycelium Growing on Plastics
Photo: Filippo Caprioli
Microscopic Image of Mycelium, Roots and Plastics
Microscopic Image of Mycelium, Roots and Plastics

About Filippo Caprioli

Uneasy Matter investigates how the ancestral symbiotic relationship between mushrooms and plants could interact with a disturbing new synthetic reality: the plastisphere. Uneasy Matter enquires how other organisms perceive man-made and man-convenient materials? Which trace Anthropocene is leaving?

Colofon

Biodesigner Filippo Caprioli