Mushroom Brain is a sound piece within The Dream House, consisting of multiple registered interviews with artists – and participants of video performance in the installation Rescue Dummies (2021). During the interviews, the characters talk about their personal experiences of inhabiting the fictional world within Dream House (core of the Rescue Dummies narrative) and speculate on the conditions of their ideal living situation; from architecture to intimate human connections and power structures governing group dynamics. Their collective wishes and memory is being modulated by a living mushroom connected to the computer, aleatory choosing the person speaking, creating a conversation on collective idea of what “home” is. A living organism of Lion’s Mane mushroom culture connected through sensors to a computer program, switches between five speakers replying to the questions of the interview.

-What is the Dream House?

-What is Emo Police?

-What is the house of your dreams?

The collective vocal memory of the experience is subject to random forces of a living organism that needs to be watered. Care is necessary for the testimonies of the Dream House world to survive and continue reverberating in the space. The project was made in collaboration with composer and artist Wladimir Schall.