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KOSMOLOGYM

DIRTBALL: FRUITING BODY

(Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA)

 

The Dirtball court reimagines basketball as a game of soil formation between humans and non-humans. This summer our Dirtball court installation was postponed due to the pandemic so, we explored other ways to frame the soil making process. Inspired by the Art Prospect theme “Treasure Hunt” we imagined a version of Dirtball that was more like a marker or buoy that could be seen from a distance and operate without direct human intervention.

As we experimented with forms, we realized we had created something like an upside down mushroom. A mushroom is a fruiting body, sometimes an edible or medicinal treasure but always an x that marks a spot on a vast mycelial network. With Dirtball: Fruiting Body we inverted the mushroom and lifted a network of soil making collaborators into the air represented by a flag, miniature basketball hoop and small bird hotel. The mushroom cap is a seed filled soil-remineralizing concrete and holds the rest of the structure in the air. The wind rocks the sculpture, slowly grinding the base down until it cracks open and releases the seeds deep in its center. The sculpture rocks in a cow pasture in an area where we regularly install sculptural experiments.

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Kosmologym is an art and game design collective. Our games challenge players to encounter others (human/animal, plant, mineral, institution) and place human bodies in physical relationships to global systems. Kosmologym has created games for Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, MN, US; the Philadelphia Science Festival and Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia, US; Art Prospect Festival 2018 in Saint Petersburg, RF;  the Kulturhavn Festival and VEGA Arts in Copenhagen, DK. We have performed our games in London and Leeds, UK; Copenhagen, Aalborg and Aarhus, DK; Philadelphia and New York City, USA.