Humanity has moved to Mars to escape a planet that they have made uninhabitable for
themselves. To successfully complete this move and begin anew, scientists have figured out that
mushrooms can save them. Society is built from mushrooms and runs on mushrooms. The
people, though satisfied with their ability to maintain humanity, are increasingly anxious about
death, both their individual deaths and the greater death of human life on Earth and the potential
for death on Mars. Thus, a memorial must be created to teach a lesson about death as it is
connected to the natural world, allow for the exploration of one’s own death, and grieve the
collective loss of human life on Earth.
Astromycological Death is a memorial, demonstration, and reflective experience. Viewers will descend into a dark, rectangular, coffin shaped chamber. On one side will be a glass wall that looks onto a mushroom coffin as it decomposes in the artificially enhanced Mars soil. On the other side will be a projection of what is happening inside the coffin. This will be the decomposition of a consenting dead woman’s corpse. To exit the memorial, the viewer will ascend to surface level onto a path that leads to a mushroom garden, which grows atop the place of burial of the coffin. Visitors are welcome to visit the memorial as many times as they would like, permitting they are over 16 years old. Viewers will be warned of graphic content prior to entering the memorial and will be informed of what stage of decomposition the body is in at the time of the visit.
This memorial will primarily achieve three goals: mourning Earth, appreciating the
relationship between human life and the natural world, and grappling with fears related to
individual death and decay of the human body. This visceral experience will connect viewers to
the processes that happen within their own bodies and within the ground and grow their
appreciation for the wonders of the natural world and the human form. The grotesque and
shocking decay of the human form will impact the viewers in a variety of ways and will enforce
the memory of this demonstration. Viewers will leave the memorial feeling more at peace about
the loss of life on Earth and with a renewed sense of hope in the growth they will witness in the
mushroom garden.
