News
Water Stories website launches
Two Oceans Aquarium launch Marine Sciences node school
City of Cape Town launches Food Gardens Project
#Kosgangsters short film wins at Mobile Moviemakers Cape Town Film Festival
Collaborators of the Month: Kartoza
Road tripping with Mycelium’s Natalie Nolte
To diarise
SA Plastics Pact Reuse Innovation Challenge
Interesting reads
Mushrooms, the Last Survivors
Complex life may only exist because of millions of years of groundwork by ancient fungi
My Octopus Teacher: Its Human Star Craig Foster Wants the Film to Inspire Change
Spotted: stuff we are loving …
NGO releases ebook highlighting Covid-19 stories of hope
Multicolored Paper Art of the Human Microbiome Mimics Textures Found in Coral Reefs
Solar panels made from crop waste
Photo by kind permission of Natalie NolteWELCOME
Our transition into the New Year is usually a time of reflection and renewal. The December solstice co-incided with a rare conjunction between Saturn and Jupiter, reminding us of our place in the unfolding universe. The Northern Hemisphere starts to move toward longer days; we in the Southern Hemisphere move into the second half of summer and gradually shortening days till our own Winter Solstice. 2020 has certainly been a year like no other, with planetary tipping points being reached all over. So the transition to 2021 has come with the sober realization that things are not going just miraculously disappear. The COVID-19 pandemic will roll on for some time to come, the cracks in society that it has revealed for all to see will continue to test us, the feeding frenzy on the last wild places gains momentum with every passing day.
For us, as Mycelium, it has certainly been challenging and often stressful, but the year now gone has brought a flowering of our vision, and a daily strengthening of our commitment to building a New Earth. Little cells of regeneration are springing up, even as we despair at the greed of corporations and governments moving fracking equipment into the Okavango, and the polluting our precious waters, atmosphere and land the world over. The growth of Community Action Networks and food growing and distribution webs, and the connections between people that come with these, feed our hope a better world is starting to breathe. As a co-operative, we have strengthened our relationships with each other and our network of affiliates and collaborators, creating a rich compost to feed current and future initiatives. Thank you to everyone for your continued commitment to creating a survivable future, we look forward to the mycelial connections and adventures the coming year will bring.
NEWS FROM THE NETWORK
Photo by kind permission of Jacqueline van Meygaarden
Water Stories website launches
“Stories are the secret reservoir of values: change the stories individuals and nations live by and tell themselves, and you change the individuals and nations.” ~ Ben Okri
We are very excited to share an ongoing collaborative partnership with academics from Environmental Humanities South (EHS), a research centre in the Faculty of Humanities at UCT, the Environmental and Nanosciences Research Group in the Department of Chemistry at UWC, the Department of Chemistry, Bioscience and Environmental Technology at the University of Stavanger in Norway, and Mycelium affiliate Vanessa Farr to create a storytelling web portal on water in and around Cape Town.
The rivers, groundwater and oceans of Cape Town are the only geographical features that know no apartheid geography. They traverse all historical divisions and carry waste and pollutants past rich and poor alike, in and through the bodies of all, whether through fishing, swimming, baptisms or recreation.
WaterStories.co.za is a community-centred project focused on watershed cleanup and minimising river and ocean contamination pathways, which aims to connect people through their stories of trying to create healthier, more habitable watersheds; and through building care and concern for local species, including otters, crabs, fish, birds, and frogs; care for soils and their fauna; and care for emerging urban farmers.
The website seeks to foster paradigm change in people’s relationship with water in cities and explicitly link food with rivers, via fish and horticulture. Building on current research on the urban water cycle, which contrasts with the traditional model of a water cycle, we aim to build public understanding of contemporary anthropocene sciences that will facilitate changes in the choices that people can make that currently affect, and damage, urban water cycles.
Phase 1 of Water Stories has been project managed jointly by Jemima Spring and Jacqueline van Meygaarden of Mycelium Media Colab, working with teams from EHS – lead by Prof Lesley Green – and ENS – lead by Prof Leslie Petrik – on concept and content development and webpage creation. Website design and layout has been done by Natalie Nolte of Mycelium Media Colab.
Water Stories consists of an interactive map with key story and location nodes, linked to webpages with further content and information, which are linked in turn to supporting studies, journalism and other resources. The map includes a river and water body layer imported from the Freshwater Biodiversity Information System (FBIS) map built using open source qgis by Kartoza for the Freshwater Research Centre.
The webpages describe in a clear and engaging way Cape Town’s urban water cycle, the different kinds of water pollution, and how these are connected, along with actions that people can take in their communities and personal capacities to help clean the city’s water. Story Pools linked to key watersheds and other hotspots, weave stories of citizen activism, academic research, historical and other relevant context. The current site has Story Pool ages for Green Point and Camps Bay.
We aim to show that in the era of desalination, we are no longer living in a fool’s paradise that believes the ocean can be a dumpsite for plastics, contaminants and sewage. Rather, that desalination closes the link between drinking water and the ocean: a link that has always been closed via processes of evaporation, condensation and precipitation, in which contaminants can evaporate and travel long distances – even intercontinentally. As such, Capetonians, in a city that heavily pollutes its rivers and oceans with sewage and solid wastes, can take up their responsibilities to build a better planet by looking after local watersheds, and local bays.
Visit WaterStories here.
Two Oceans Aquarium launch Marine Sciences node school
Grade 10s can study the Marine Sciences subject through Two Oceans Aquarium and matriculate with it in 2023. This also means that adults, who want to take an immersive dive into Marine Sciences can sign up to learn over the next three years. The four strands of Marine Sciences are marine biology, oceanography, ecology and human impacts. This course will be offered by the authors of the Marine Science curriculum document, and the corresponding online textbook, which the lessons in the course will be based on. Russell Stevens and Xavier Zylstra have almost half a century of teaching experience between them. Registrations for the subject and adult course are now open. Read more about the course on their website or please email education@aquariumfoundation.org.za
City of Cape Town launches Food Gardens Project
The City’s Mayoral Committee for Urban Management Alderman Grant Twigg launched the City’s Food Gardens Project on Monday 14 December 2020, with a focus on promoting home gardens.The Food Gardens Project forms part of the City’s Urban Management Support Programme’s initiative to establish sustainable food gardens which will aid in addressing food insecurity in vulnerable areas and It is earmarked to commence in January 2021.
“Approximately R3 million has been budgeted for this project. It will go towards targeted beneficiaries for the use of farming kits that will include seeds, fertilizer, equipment, training and skills development amongst others,” said Alderman Twigg. The COVID-19 pandemic has reaffirmed the need for urban farming programmes as many households have been impacted negatively and need food relief during this time. Home gardens are also becoming an increasingly important source of food and a mechanism for job creation.
This initiative is underpinned by a skills development programme that will ensure that beneficiaries who are managing urban food gardens are equipped with the appropriate skills and for future employment thereby creating job opportunities in the sector.”The aim is to involve a few hundred backyard and urban farms in this urban farming project from across the city which comprises all twenty-four subcouncils. This is a huge undertaking and a project that I am extremely excited and proud to be a part of,” said Alderman Twigg. Each of the subcouncils was asked to identify 30 participants to start up food gardens. Assessments of the gardens are currently underway.
The Food Gardens Project will provide support to new and existing farmers that is not limited to backyards, schools, open spaces around City-owned buildings, churches, NGOs, clinics and libraries, that require no capital costs. “This project is aimed at encouraging households to start their own food production units. Owning your garden offers great potential for improving a household’s food security. This includes direct access to nutritionally rich foods, savings on food bills and fall-back food provision during lean periods,” said Alderman Twigg.
#Kosgangsters short film wins at Mobile Moviemakers Cape Town Film Festival
Congratulations again to Lara Taylor from the Mycelium Media Colab on your Best Documentary Award at the Mobile Moviemakers Cape Town Film Festival! The video was filmed at the Ocean View Farm and focuses on two of the female farmers. Coming from the harsh environment of Ocean View, their stories highlight the strength and courage that these women have. The farm offers them a space to learn new skills, create new connections and grow their confidence.
MMOCA was created to showcase, nurture, and support the emerging creative filmmaker, who using technology available from a mobile device (smartphone, tablet, action camera or drone) to create stories in a cinematic way. By focusing on mobile filmmaking, they eliminate a lot of the economic constraints, allowing more people to take part. The festival is an initiative of the Belgian Chamber of Commerce South Africa, powered by the Consulate – General of Belgium, the Flanders and the Wallonia – Brussels regions and the Flemish Investment and Trade association in South Africa.
“I am a freelance filmmaker but also run a company. Currently I am on contract with Activate! Academy – an organisation that produce a blended, E-learning approach to up-skilling. As a Social Anthropology post-graduate, my interest in people and places has evolved into a passion for sharing stories and using film as a tool to learn, teach and impact people’s thoughts and actions. I am inspired and passionate about all the work I do – pushing my creative skills as far as they can go. Social Media and cell phone videos are a new source of stimulation and learning as well as the incredibly fast-growing & dynamic world of e-learning.” says Lara.
Watch the winning movies.
Collaborators of the Month: Kartoza
As part of the development process for Water Stories, we did research into existing storytelling map and water initiatives, and what work was already being done in the field, alongside the work of our collaborative partners at EHS and ENS. We were delighted to discover the Freshwater Research Centre who are doing fantastic work on freshwater biodiversity and amongst their many initiatives is the Freshwater Biodiversity Information System (FBIS), a platform for hosting, visualising and sharing freshwater biodiversity information for South African rivers. “The FBIS serves as a community platform for inventory and maintenance of freshwater biodiversity data with an end goal to assist the evaluation of long-term change in river biodiversity and ecosystem condition in South Africa.”
FBIS has been implemented by the FRC with Kartoza, a South Africa-based Free and Open Source GIS (FOSSGIS) service provider. They use GIS software to solve complex location-related problems for individuals, businesses and governments around the world. A Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a computer-based tool that allows you to collect, analyse and connect location-based information and visualise this data on a map. With this system, you can analyse geospatial information to gain insights and solve complex spatial problems. The geospatial mapping has also been used for healthcare provision in partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières and mapping support for the Cape Town marathon event with shared spatial view of the event used by the organisers, local and provincial government and the public.
Geographic information systems were new to us at Mycelium, and Kartoza were extremely generous with their time assisting us with technical explanations. As FBIS is built on using the open source system qgis, which Kartoza developed, and is itself an open source project, we were able to bring their river layer into our storytelling map, which has added huge value which is also beautiful to look at. Many thanks to the Freshwater Research Centre and Kartoza for all their assistance.
Road tripping with Mycelium’s Natalie Nolte
Mycelium friends have been enjoying the posts member Natalie Nolte has been sharing this festive season:“I went on a 2 and a half week road trip and visited some wonderful regenerative spaces along the way, we travelled through De Rust where I stayed at Meijers Rust, visited Numbi Valley and Spensplaas farm, and then went onto the Central Karoo. We stopped in at The Veggie Box – a lovely organic shop in Swellendam on our way to stay in a rustic cabin in Wolfkloof Broedery – a farm in the magical mountains nearby.
There are many pockets of people quietly living in regenerative ways. It’s always a wonder to stumble across them and see the magic they are making and the potential for world change in their abundant food gardens, soil rebuilding, energy & water harvesting and community connections. I felt super inspired on my return to get back into my own garden, and what a beautiful welcome home I got when I found my wicking beds flowing with green veg.”
TO DIARISE
SA Plastics Pact Reuse Innovation Challenge
The South African Plastics Pact is working towards a circular economy for plastics, a South Africa where plastics are valued and do not pollute our environment. Part of the solution is to increase the number of reusable packaging items used in place of single use packaging. To this end, the SA Plastics Pact is hosting a Reuse Innovation Challenge competition, which will reward innovators with the best designs for sharing their ideas with a prize pot of R500 000 in cash. The prize money will be shared among a maximum of three winners, with the potential for product development or implementation assistance through partner companies from the SA Plastics Pact membership.
The challenge: Choose an item on the South African market which currently is packaged in plastic packaging that is not designed to be reused. Develop reusable packaging solutions to replace it. This should include every aspect of the reuse cycle of that product (from fill to refill). Submit MS PowerPoint slides or a PDF document containing your design and all pertinent information supporting your packaging innovation. Innovations are not limited to physical products, but could also be systems or models for the reuse cycling of packaging items. For more inspiration visit https://plastics.emf.org/upstream and https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications/reuse
INTERESTING READS
 Mushrooms, the Last Survivors
Neither plant nor animal, mushrooms have confounded humans since ancient times. Now, they’re a reminder of our tenuous place in an uncertain world. In the United States, the boom may be credited in part to the beginnings of a shift toward less meat-heavy diets but also to the broadening of the American palate to embrace the Japanese notion of umami, the flavor beyond flavor: rich, carnal and briny at once, hinting at some dark ripening beneath the earth or sea. New York Times
 Complex life may only exist because of millions of years of groundwork by ancient fungi
Because of their delicate organic and decomposing nature, fossilised fungi are extremely rare. So rare, in fact, that a new discovery has just pushed back the earliest evidence of fungi by at least 500m years – doubling their age.Until now, the oldest confirmed fungal fossils dated to around 450m years ago – about the same time that plants migrated from sea to land. One of the most famous fossilised fungi from this period is the Prototaxites, which could grow up to eight metres tall – leading to its misidentification for many years as a tree. But previous examination of the fungal “molecular clock”, using DNA-based methods, suggested that fungi may have evolved much earlier, between 760m and 1.06 billion years ago. The Conversation
 My Octopus Teacher: Its Human Star Craig Foster Wants the Film to Inspire Change
One doesn’t need an exotic location (or an octopus) to reconnect with nature, Foster says. While he was fortunate to have the ocean at his doorstep, wildlife teachers can be found anywhere, even in the middle of a city. “If you suddenly took one tree in New York and figured out how that tree changed over 365 days and what animals interacted with it, what insects live in there, how that tree is surviving, I think that could have quite a large effect on your life.” Time
SPOTTED: stuff we are loving …
… these initiatives which support our aim of living in a more beautiful world.
 NGO releases ebook highlighting Covid-19 stories of hope
Local NGO Activate! Change Drivers has published an ebook, The Activate! Network responds to Covid-19 – We are who we’ve been waiting for, showcasing the stories of how the South African youth have stepped up during the Covid-19 crisis to help their communities and create meaningful impact. Mycelium Media Colab member Lara Taylor often collaborates with Activate so we were already fans of their work, but this is super cool! Activate communications manager Kim Barlow explains: “The book is a compilation of inspiring stories of individuals in the Activate network who, in spite of their own difficulties, chose to help their communities in various ways. The book documents the hope and resilience of a youth populace who want to change South Africa for the better – and who are willing to be that change.” Download the free ebook here.
 Paper Art of the Human Microbiome Mimics Textures Found in Coral Reefs
Many of nature’s objects feature recurring patterns and motifs described as fractals, which can be seen repeating themselves at increasing levels of magnification. Inspired by this phenomenon, artist Rogan Brown creates intricately cut paper art that mimics and compares various organic formations such as cell structures, microbes, shells, and fossils. His latest series, titled Magical Circle Variations, explores the surprising visual similarities between coral reefs and microorganisms found in the human body. My Modern Met
 Solar panels made from crop waste
A 27-year-old engineering student from the Philippines has won the inaugural James Dyson Sustainability Award for an invention that generates clean energy from agricultural crop waste. Carvey Ehren Maigue, a student at the Mapúa University in the Philippines, created the translucent AuREUS material using luminescent particles obtained from certain fruits and vegetables. Maigue was inspired by the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) phenomenon where high energy particles in the atmosphere are absorbed by luminescent particles that re-emit them as visible light. Architecture and Design
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WHO ARE MYCELIUM?
The world is facing an unprecedented crisis, significant environmental degradation, deepening social inequality and economic collapse. These interlinked crises are exacerbated by man-made climate change. We will only overcome these challenges and be able to bring about a sustainable and regenerative world by working together to rebuild our connections and relationships with natural systems, and with each other. Mycelium is a collaboration of multi-media content creators focused on showing what a sustainable and regenerative world could look like, and how to get there. We do this by raising awareness and showcasing examples, and by growing the number of practitioners able to support this mission.Our values are based on those of the International Co-operative Alliance: self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. We also embrace the values of collaboration, honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others. Our value system acknowledges the need to combat the significant levels of inequality in South Africa, particularly those related to race and gender. We have chosen to work through the cooperative model because it offers economies of scale and scope, increased bargaining power, a space for learning, and the ability to offer value to our members and broader society.
Membership to the Mycelium Media Colab is open to multimedia storytellers, artists and regenerators that share our vision collaborative and transformative change. It offers a networking and support space for members to share skills and inspiration, and creatively cross-pollinate, as well as a platform and organisational structure for projects that require a team. Ownership of projects is shared between the creators and the co-operative. Contact info@myceliumcolab.com for more information and visit https://myceliumcolab.com/
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