Talk:Fungi in art

I am wondering if submitting an art piece I made is ok.
https://fungal.page is a net art page, as a tribute to Wikipedia that takes the form of a mycelium invaded Wikipedia article. I wanted to picture it as a post-human vestige, an artefact invaded by biomorphic figures and spreading typography. I focused on how to create organic ornaments, affecting the encyclopedia’s interface, its typography, the figures and the Wikipedia logo itself. This piece also exists in other forms: A riso fanzine, stickers, poster and open source typeface. The main concept is spreading through media, just like fungi does in a fertile environment. Raphaelbastide (talk) 13:47, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

Hello user:Raphaelbastide thanks for checking. I'd love this page to become a hub for people to share their work and for other to be inspired. Though for sharing information of Wikipedia I believe a reliable secondary source is needed. Is there any news coverage of your work which you can share? For Wikimedia Commons, I believe (but please check!) that it's perfectly fine to upload images of your work. Be aware about the CC-BY license though. Cheers CorradoNai (talk) 17:34, 4 January 2023 (UTC)


 * To my knowledge, the project has no news coverage. However, it is exhibited in two different physical art spaces, it is being sold on an independent art shop and has been exposed many times on social media. But I understand why Wikipedia is careful on that subject. Anyway, I love this page. 83.114.12.158 (talk) 15:20, 5 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks Raphaelbastide! Let us know when your artwork get press coverage (or of any other relevant artwork) to add to the page! CorradoNai (talk) 05:20, 6 January 2023 (UTC)

Wonderful, thank you. I will address point by point. CorradoNai (talk) 18:07, 13 February 2023 (UTC)

GA Review - improving the page following reviewer comments
Dear TompaDompa (and everyone helping improving this page), many thanks for the very helpful comments, and in general for helping me become a better Wikipedian. I copy-pasted the comments below, and will answer point by point. I decided not to rewrite the page, because I hope that the structure of the page proves helpful as a framework to present very different examples of artworks within the same scope (how fungi directly and indirectly influence the arts). See also my answers to the general comments below. I hope that having a more precise scope of the article, shortening, and better incoporating sources might do the trick.CorradoNai (talk) 06:29, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
 * I also noticed this article (it showed up in WP:Database reports/Pages containing too many maintenance templates due to the reviewer's extreme tagging). I'll try my best to get the article up to par, although it does need a lot of attention and I'm not sure I can make it alone. Please feel free to edit it also (if we don't have an edit conflict in the way). Duckmather (talk) 22:30, 12 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks a lot, Duckmather. It's a bit overwhelming but I was planning to tackle within the next weeks to, if not bring to GA level, at least remove the maintenance templates. Every help is very welcome. We can alway check with each other in case of major disagreements. Thanks! CorradoNai (talk) 06:15, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

General comments

 * The article needs a lot of copyediting for spelling, grammar, tone, redundancies, and so on. I have noted several examples below.
 * I will get through them. I'll also involve the WP:Peer review and the WP:Guild of Copy Editors as you suggested (I wasn't aware).CorradoNai (talk) 06:29, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I will go through point by point. It seems like a lot, but also very helpful. Thanks for your work. — Preceding unsigned comment added by CorradoNai (talk • contribs) 10:33, 16 February 2023 (UTC) Reply
 * The WP:Short description is Use of fungal materials in artistic works, which would seem to suggest that the article is about using fungi to create art (e.g. using fungus-based dyes for paintings) rather than depictions of fungi in art (e.g. paintings of fungi).
 * True. The short description is now changed to: Direct and indirect influence of fungi in the arts
 * This article appears to lack a well-defined scope. Paintings of mushrooms, paintings made with fungus-based dyes, paintings made while under the influence of fungal psychedelics, and protecting paintings from mould are very different topics.
 * Noted, thanks. Protection of artworks form fungal decay can go somewhere else (it's deleted from the page). The article wants to present very different artworks directly influenced by fungi, that is, all those artworks who would not exist without fungi. I hope that by following your comments and suggestions, the scope will be more clear. I also agree that this is a very broad scope for a Wikipedia page. I hope to narrow it down by having a well defined structure: that is, presenting how fungi are represented, symbolized, transformed, or utilized in the arts (see also my answer to your comment below). Again, this is very broad. So it is helpful to consider which fungal form influences which art form, which is overall how the page is structured. I could remove the indirect influence of fungi in the arts to help clarifying the scope. However, I think these are so prominent asnd prolific throughout history, that I believe they fit well within the scope of the page (that is, to present artworks that would not exist without fungi) CorradoNai (talk) 06:29, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
 * The section headings don't follow MOS:HEADINGS. For instance, "Mushrooms in art" should just be "Mushrooms".
 * Thanks, it is changed now.
 * I see you were told on your talk page to not use date formatting like "2022-12-06" because people may be unsure whether "12" or "06" is the month. Ignore that. That's the ISO 8601 date format, which is internationally standardised, unambiguous, machine-readable, language-independent, and has some other benefits such as sorting chronologically when sorted numerically.
 * Huge bummer, but noted. Thanks.
 * The images from the 2022 Fungi Film Festival are tagged CC-BY-SA 4.0, which seems a bit odd to me. I was unable to verify this by following the link on the Commons page. I notice you uploaded both images. How did you make that determination?
 * Those should be CC-BY 4.0 (maybe someone else changed attribution? not sure). I sought permission from the festival organisers to share with CC-By license, and they agreed.
 * There are some MOS:CURLY quotation marks and apostrophes.
 * Thanks, will change throughout the page.
 * There are several hyphens that should be en dashes, see MOS:ENDASH.
 * Ok, will change as I find them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by CorradoNai (talk • contribs) 09:02, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Where does the representation/showcase/transformation/utilization framework come from? It's referenced heavily throughout the article.
 * That's an excellent point, and I was a bit worried that it is considered original research. The framework comes from me. I argue that it is a useful way to present how fungi influence the art, that is, the originality of it is nothing but a useful tool for an encyclopedic presentation of this topic. But correct, there is no reference for it. I hope it can remain in the page, but I will tone it down.
 * It would be a lot easier to verify claims in the article if page numbers were always given for book citations.
 * Noted, will do.
 * There are a lot of repeated links. While it may sometimes be reasonable to repeat a link if the same thing is mentioned much later in the article, several of these are quite close to other identical links.
 * Ok, will change. Thanks!
 * The article needs careful copyediting for verb tense.
 * Thanks, will do. I will try to involve the WP:Guild of Copy Editors as you suggested.
 * Several (sub-)sections start with an excerpt or quote from a poem, song, or similar. This can sometimes be appropriate when used sparingly and judiciously, but it's overused here.
 * Thanks, I will minimize the use of it and leave most illustrative examples.

not addressed point by point, but rather as a whole - I believe other WIkipedians also already chipped in, so the lead is quite different from the original now
CorradoNai (talk) 13:52, 18 May 2023 (UTC)


 * There's a lot of emphatic language here. Examples include enormous influence, extremely various and prolific , and incredibly diverse . This recurs in the body.
 * There is an overuse of parenthetical clarifications. This recurs in the body.
 * entheogenic (psychoactive) – not synonyms. Either gloss entheogen properly or just say "psychoactive".
 * Atzec – typo.
 * The image caption is unsourced.
 * belonging to the eukaryotes (nucleated or 'higher' organisms) – what's the relevance of this?
 * being neglected or ignored – this is an opinion expressed in WP:WikiVoice.
 * Virtually all areas of the arts have been infiltrated by fungi – overly poetic phrasing.
 * Artists working with fungi are mostly representing (describing), showcasing (symbolizing), transforming, or utilizing them. – the meaning of this is not obvious. I gather that this is rather important to the overall thesis (for lack of a better word) of the article.
 * The distinction between these art practices and approaches are not clear-cut – subject–verb disagreement.
 * use them as narrative, rhetorical, stylistic, or stage element – the last word should be plural.
 * artists using fungi as transformative agent – the last word should be plural.
 * often explore the topic of transformation, decay, renewal, sustainability, circularity of matter – is this one topic or several? Either way its ungrammatical.
 * For 'indirect influence of fungi' it is meant the depiction or description of the effect of fungi – grammar. Also WP:REFERSTO.
 * the creation of art upon influence of fungi-derived substances – "upon"?
 * could also be considered an indirect influence of fungi in the art – MOS:WEASEL.
 * Further important aspects of fungi in art – having the title appear in bold in the fourth paragraph of the lead is way too late. Either include it in the first paragraph (sentence, really) or not at all.

Fungi in art by artistic area

 * Traditionally, mushrooms have been the main subject for depiction in the arts [...] the enormous plasticity of fungi enables artists to work with different fungal forms to create very diverse artworks. – unsourced.
 * In general, the issue I have is that the more introductory parts of the article (lead, and this one) are a wrap up of what is presented in the article itself. A source might well be not existant. When I say, for example, that "It is rare for artwork to depict several forms of fungi (such as across the fungus reproductive cycle), except in non-fiction literature, documentaries, or contemporary art" this is based on the many examples I could see and show in the article. I am not sure if this is original research or a way to present the examples of fungi in art
 * It would seem to make more sense to have the image (technically images, plural) currently in this section in the lead and vice versa, since the former illustrates the topic's variety and the latter its history.
 * this has been done by another Wikipedian (thank you!)
 * Artworks representing, showcasing, transforming, and utilizing fungi. – which is which? The rest of the caption doesn't make that clear.
 * same as above
 * Clockwise from upper left – I'm fairly certain that's not the case. Clockwise from upper left would end with the bottom left image, but the description seems to end with the bottom right one.
 * same as above
 * 1000 BCE-500 AD – use either BCE/CE or BC/AD, but be consistent. Since the rest of the article uses "BCE" consistently, I would suggest simply replacing "AD" with "CE" here. See also MOS:ENDASH.
 * will correct rhoughout the article
 * The second paragraph consists of 7 sentences for a total of roughly 350 words. There is one source in the middle of the final sentence and five following the final clause. It is very unclear where the majority of the material in the paragraph comes from.
 * I added a reference relative to fungiphobia, and just left 2 (in particular, the book by the Wassons will do - they were the first to introduce the notoin that the West thends towards mycophobia, the East towards mycophilia)

Mushrooms in art

 * The first paragraph goes way WP:OFFTOPIC.
 * It seems that a lot of this section has been edited already (thanks!). For points which have been already addressed, I will just say: "Already edited"
 * What is the image of Baba Yaga doing here? The text in this section says nothing about Baba Yaga or Amanita muscaria.
 * Down below is Baba Yaga a topic, so I left it for the time being. But noted.
 * Artists have often represented or described mushrooms as decorative, naturalistic, or symbolic element. In the graphic arts, architecture, sculpture, and literature, artists mostly represented or showcased mushrooms. – not in the cited sources.
 * Already edited
 * mostly represented or showcased mushrooms – as opposed to mostly doing something else with mushrooms or as opposed to mostly representing/showcasing something else?
 * As opposed to other fungal forms as mycelia, lichens, etc. However: Already edited
 * Currently, contemporary artists are increasingly – MOS:CURRENT.
 * Already edited
 * Currently, contemporary artists are increasingly including mushrooms in their artworks. – this statement is followed by three sources, two of which verify nothing while the third merely says Today, according to the curator of a new art exhibition, artists are more interested in fungi than ever before. The statement in this Wikipedia article is both stronger and more specific than the one made by the source.
 * Already edited
 * as for example in – pleonasm.
 * Already edited
 * Early depictions of fungi are petroglyphs from the Bronze Age – this is a general statement, but was presumably meant to be a specific one.
 * Already edited
 * Given the mysterious, seasonal, sudden, and at times inexplicable appearance of mushrooms, as well as the hallucinogenic or toxic effects of some species, their depiction in ethnic, classic and modern art (around 1860–1970) is often associated in Western art with the macabre, ambiguous, dangerous, mystic, obscene, disgusting, alien, or curious in paintings, illustrations, and works of fiction and literature. – this kind of WP:ANALYSIS categorically needs to come from the sources.
 * I have given as source the book The Magic of Mushrooms by Sandra Lawrence, which covers these aspects
 * Visual artists representing mushrooms have been very prolific throughout history. Whereas examples before the 15th century are rare, examples abound from European visual arts from the 1500 onwards including periods as the Renaissance, the Baroque, Flemish, and Romantic periods. – not in the cited source.
 * This comes from the NAMA registstry of fungi in art (https://namyco.org/art_registry.php), which I believe to be a reputable source. I have now refurmulated and I hope it's now Ok.
 * The 'Shaggy ink cap' and the Coprinus comatus – these two are the same, right?
 * One is the common Enlgish name, the other the Latin one
 * The 'Shaggy ink cap' and the Coprinus comatus and the 'Common ink cap' Coprinus atramentaria mushrooms produce spores by deliquescing (liquefying, or melting) their cap into a black ink, which can be used in drawing, illustration, and calligraphy. – this could and should be condensed. It contains a lot of unnecessary details.
 * Done
 * Protocols to produce the 'mushrooms ink' can be found online. – WP:NOTHOWTO.
 * Already edited
 * as in petroglyphs representing mushroom-headed people discovered near the Pegtymel River (Siberia) – already mentioned.
 * Already edited (I believe)
 * around the world, including in western and non-western works – rather odd phrasing that doesn't provide much information. "Around the world" would seem to imply basically everywhere. Why elaborate further? Why use "western and non-western", specifically? Seems like WP:Systemic bias to me.
 * This comes from a transcluded page. I've not edited yet the original one.
 * more mushrooms are present in artworks from cultures considered to be mycophiles – that hardly seems surprising. I might even expect this to be true by definition.
 * Already edited (I believe)
 * considered to be mycophiles – by whom?
 * Already edited
 * Does the entire first paragraph in the "Paintings, tapestries, and illustrations" subsection come from the source cited at the end?
 * I have added the citation to the NAMA art registry. I took a lot of information from there.
 * collects and describe – grammar.
 * Already edited
 * During the Victorian era, numerous scientists drew accurate illustrations of fungi, blurring the border between mycology and the arts. – unsourced.
 * Already edited
 * The Registry of Mushrooms in Works of Art is mentioned three separate times in different paragraphs.
 * Already edited
 * Art periods and artists are categorized as follows in the registry: – so what? This is clearly out of proportion in this article. It might belong in an article about the registry itself, but not here.
 * Already edited
 * Notable examples – see MOS:Words to watch.
 * Already edited
 * Notable examples of visual artists depicting mushrooms and how they contributed to both mycology and the arts are: – how were these examples chosen? This is also a bad use of a list in a prose article.
 * A bit randomly, I admit. I chose several examples which I thought would be varied enough, then transcluded from the respective Wikipedia pages
 * how they contributed to both mycology and the arts – contributions to mycology are WP:OFFTOPIC if they don't relate to the arts. The Beatrix Potter entry is an example of going off-topic like this.
 * Already edited (I believe)
 * Hundreds of his paintings have been digitized by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel (Philadelphia) – superfluous detail.
 * Deleted
 * The Charles Tulasne entry is entirely unsourced.
 * I transcluded this
 * He is known for his excellent illustrations – that's an opinion.
 * Same as above
 * 174 13" by 15" – clunky phrasing. This notation is also to be avoided, see MOS:INCH.
 * Same as above
 * The Ernst Haeckel entry is entirely unsourced. It should also be "Haeckel" rather than "Häckel" per the linked article (the article on German-language Wikipedia likewise uses ae rather than ä, so this does not seem to be an Anglicization of the spelling).
 * Same as above
 * A countless number [...] abound – pleonasm.
 * Already edited (I believe)
 * Non-fiction books about fungi, especially those involving identification of fungi, includes photographs of fungal species and their fruiting bodies. – subject–verb disagreement.
 * Already edited
 * Work of literary fiction – grammar.
 * The mistake was 'work' instead of 'works'? If so, now fixed
 * Work of literary fiction involving mushrooms and fungi are often linked to [...] – I'm guessing this is meant to say that the mushrooms and fungi, rather than the fiction itself, are linked to that stuff.
 * Both, to be honest. It's fungi inspiring the trope, so I am not sure I see the difference. Perhaps my formulation could have been better.
 * often linked to infection, decay, toxicity, mystery, fantasy, and ambiguity, and thus have mostly a negative connotation – could you provide a quote from the source that verifies this?
 * I have reused the reference "The magic of Mushrooms" by Sandra Lwarence as it provides many examples
 * In line with the assumption – whose assumption?
 * Specified (the Wassons')
 * During the Victorian era, fungi started to acquire a more playful, childish, or jolly role in works of literary fiction. – not in the cited source.
 * Added source
 * Several renowned authors have used fungi as plot device. – MOS:PUFFERY.
 * Already edited
 * These include Percy Shelly, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, D.H. Lawrence, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, and more. – "These include" means that the list is non-exhaustive, making "and more" redundant. I also find it questionable that it's necessary to give this many examples.
 * I have removed two, if that helps
 * Lord Alfred Tennyson – I've heard this person referred to as "Alfred, Lord Tennyson", "Lord Tennyson", "Alfred Tennyson", and often just plain "Tennyson", but never "Lord Alfred Tennyson". I don't know if it's strictly speaking incorrect, but it sticks out.
 * Removed
 * Percy Shelly – typo.
 * Already edited
 * Fungi have been a common trope in the science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy and crime fiction genres. Fungi have a long tradition in science fiction. – repetitive.
 * Already edited
 * In Ray Bradbury's Come into My Cellar – the titles of short stories are presented in "quotation marks", not italics.
 * Already edited
 * alien invasors – typo.
 * Fungi have been a common trope in the science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy and crime fiction genres. [...] Crime and detective writer Agatha Christie has repeatedly used mushrooms as murder weapon in her crime fiction. – does all of this come from the source cited at the end?
 * No, I added the source for Ray Bradbury's story
 * A non-exhaustive list of fictional stories involving mushrooms is given below: – why? This is not TV Tropes.
 * Already edited
 * The quarterly periodical FUNGI Magazine runs a regular feature called Bookshelf Fungi reviewing fiction and non-fiction books on fungi. – unsourced.
 * I added the external link at the end which I understad cannot be added in the main text. I am deleting the [source needed] comment but I am also reformulating the sentence in the hope this helps.
 * In Western culture poetry, as in literature, fungi are historically associated with negative feelings or sentiments, although, together with the rising popularity of fungi, this trend might hold less true in recent years. – this kind of WP:ANALYSIS categorically needs to come from the sources.
 * I reformulated and made it more of a general statement which runs through the whole articles (references added before, e.g. the book by the Wassons)
 * The poem The Mushroom (1896) by Emily Dickinson is unsympathetic towards mushrooms. American author of weird horror and supernatural fiction H. P. Lovercraft created a collection of cosmic horror sonnets with fungi as subject called Fungi from Yuggoth (1929–30). Margaret Atwood's poem Mushrooms (1981) explores the topics of the life cycle and nature. – not in the cited source.
 * These are very general statements that everyone can verify (if interested) by just going and reading the original). I left the [failed verification] note in, but still, I am not sure I follow the argument.
 * True to the observation that Asian cultures are mycophilic, several hundreds of Japanese haiku have as their subject mushrooms and mushroom hunting – not compliant with WP:NPOV. This is endorsing a particular viewpoint. This needs to be given WP:INTEXT attribution to the source that says that (1) Asian cultures are mycophilic and (2) this is reflected in haiku writing.
 * It was already edited it seems, and I added a reference
 * Numerous haiku have been recently translated into English. – superfluous detail, and MOS:RECENT.
 * Already edited
 * fungi have had an conspicuous influence in mythology – "conspicuous"?
 * Already edited
 * across various latitudes, civilizations, and historical epochs – why latitudes?
 * Already edited
 * has arguably contributed – MOS:EDITORIALIZING.
 * Already edited
 * The distinction between literature, folklore, and myth is not always clear cut, and occasionally open to interpretations. – who says so in this context?
 * Already edited, it seems
 * Some writers argue that fungi have inspired numerous myths, and vice versa that many myths can be re-interpreted through the lens of fungal ecology. – do some authors say the former and others the latter, or do the same people say both? This also needs to be sourced.
 * Now deleted
 * Juda Iscariot – typo.
 * Already fixed I think
 * Occasionally, the involvement of fungi in myth and folklore is driven by allegory, cultural practices, or popular interpretations. – Unsourced.
 * I removed "Occasionally" - just wondering if allegories, cultural practices, and popular interpretations is what generally speaking creates myth and folklore, and how much a source is needed here.
 * For example, given the cultural relevance and prevalence of fermented (alcoholic) beverages throughout history, there are numerous deities associated with wine and beer, which can be regarded as an indirect effect of fungi in the arts. – according to whom? This could also be condensed by removing the superfluous "given the cultural relevance [...]" part.
 * I reformulated
 * Fungi (yeasts) play a conspicuous role in several religions, for example through fermentation (e.g. wine) and leavening (e.g. bread). – this overlaps significantly with the preceding sentence and could be merged with it. It also needs to be sourced.
 * I haven't added a source yet
 * According ton – typo.
 * Alredy edited
 * In the Parable of the Leaven, one of the Parables of Jesus, the growth of the Kingdom of God is akin to the leavening of bread through yeast. [...] However, yeast is associated with corruption in other passages of the New Testament – this is interesting, but it needs to be sourced to reliable sources making the same point in the context of the topic of this article, i.e. fungi in art.
 * I haven't added a source yet
 * [Mead] has played an important role in the mythology of some peoples. In Norse mythology, for example, the Mead of Poetry, crafted from the blood of Kvasir (a wise being born from the mingled spittle of the Aesir and Vanir deities) would turn anyone who drank it into a poet or scholar. – unsourced.
 * It's transcluded. I haven't edited the source page yet
 * As one of the evidences they provide – grammar.
 * Already edited
 * as a way to increase mushroom harvesting – as a way to increase the amount harvested, presumably. Not the amount of work done harvesting.
 * Already edited
 * where since recently – MOS:RECENT.
 * Already edited
 * researchers are investigating the effect of electric voltage on mushroom sprouting, showing positive correlations with some species – WP:OFFTOPIC.
 * Already edited
 * According to several interpretations, the legendary figure of Santa Claus is heavily influenced by the fly agaric – not at all what the source says. Millman says Santa Claus: A celebrated gift giver who may have the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) as one of his ingredients. That's just one interpretation—Millman makes no mention of any other one—and there's a significant difference between "is heavily influenced by" and "may have as one of the ingredients".
 * Fair enough, edited
 * anecdotal evidences – grammar. This is also not anecdotal evidence.
 * Already edited
 * The connotation was dispregiative – dispregiative?
 * Already edited
 * There is a conspicuous corpus of literature – odd and rather, yes, conspicuous phrasing.
 * A conspicuous observation (and noted for the future, thanks)
 * Although these books are non-fictional, the works are often excellent examples of storytelling and tinkering – that's an opinion stated in WP:WikiVoice.
 * Already edited
 * and are a fundamental source – that's also an opinion.
 * Already edited
 * the growing do-it-yourself community – why describe it as "growing"?
 * Already edited
 * These works are not only an important source but also a way for artists to converge and experiment with fungi. – unencyclopedic in tone. Comes off as promotional. Persuasive writing, really. Also unattributed opinion.
 * Already edited
 * The book [...] offers insights – definitely way too promotional.
 * Already edited
 * Some books proposed speculative or disputed theories on the cultural influence of fungi throughout history, like The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross by John Allegro, and were received critically by fellow mycologists. – why is this here? Basically every field will have some degree of disagreement within it. Is there any strong reason to bring this particular instance up?
 * I deleted
 * The online book club 'MycoBookClub' discusses monthly a selection of mostly non-fiction books on fungi on Twitter. – why bring up an online book club?
 * Deleted
 * Authors of non-fictional books about fungi are often pioneers – MOS:PUFFERY.
 * Edited
 * contribute to the increased popularity, popularisation [...] – contributing to the increased popularity of something and contributing to the popularisation of the same thing are just two different ways of saying the same thing, making this redundant.
 * Edited
 * I daresay using seven references in a row here is WP:Citation overkill.
 * Removed some
 * Adaptations of literary fiction into motion pictures follow similar tropes present in science fiction, horror, supernatural, and crime fiction genres. – is that from the cited source? At any rate, this seems rather unsurprising and not necessarily worth mentioning.
 * Fair enough, it's gone
 * Is it necessary to have yet another mention of the Pegtymel petroglyphs in this section? Much of the information is repeated. It seems more reasonable to mention that they have been the subject of a documentary at their first mention, if the documentary needs to be mentioned at all.
 * Deleted
 * the eponymous petroglyphs – how are they eponymous? The documentary is called Pegtymel, the name of the river.
 * Deleted
 * commercially successful – wholly irrelevant MOS:PUFFERY.
 * Deleted
 * released on Netflix – irrelevant detail.
 * Alredy edited
 * renowned mycologist – MOS:PUFFERY.
 * Alredy edited, I think
 * the intriguing world of fungi – that's a subjective assessment.
 * Alredy edited
 * presents the intriguing world of fungi [...] with the use of narration, time-lapse photography, and interviews – these are all rather standard techniques in documentary filmmaking. Is there any particular reason to mention this here?
 * Alredy edited
 * The documentary covers fungi and not only mushrooms. – conspicuous phrasing. This rather forcefully implies that this is unexpected and a positive.
 * Alredy edited
 * Recently, new film festivals – MOS:RECENTLY.
 * Alredy edited, I think
 * Screening ar online or at specific venues. – I'm not entirely sure what this is intended to say, but it appears to have been mistyped.
 * Alredy edited
 * Most notably – according to whom? This is unattributed opinion stated in WP:WikiVoice.
 * Alredy edited, I think
 * Most notably are the Fungi Film Festival [...] – grammar.
 * Alredy edited
 * Radical Mycology author Peter McCoy – is this meant to say that McCoy is the author of a work with the title Radical Mycology, or that McCoy is an author within the field of radical mycology? Either the capitalization or lack of italics is wrong.
 * Alredy edited
 * often present at the 2022 Fungi Film Festival – often present at a single event? Is this meant to say that it is present in many entries in the 2022 event or that it is recurring in different years?
 * Alredy edited
 * The commercially successful 2019 documentary Fantastic Fungi [...] Topics and themes often present at the 2022 Fungi Film Festival are personification of mushrooms, experimental/conceptual representation of fungal forms, and utilization of mushrooms for their (hallucinogenic) properties. – not in the cited source.
 * I am not sure there is a source on it. I simply watched the festival
 * drew inspiration from Terence McKenna's 'Stoned Ape Theory' – which is what, exactly? This is not particularly informative.
 * Alredy edited
 * In the Belgian comic franchise The Smurfs, the characters with the same name – poor phrasing. Really, this could all be replaced with just "The Smurfs".
 * Alredy edited
 * American fantasy and science fiction comic book artist Frank Frazetta illustrated the cover image of the 1964 edition of the novel The Secret People (1935) by John Beynon (pseudonym of John Wyndham), in which fictive 'little people' inhabit areas with giant mushrooms. – presumably the last clause applies to the novel rather than the cover image, so why mention the cover image at all?
 * It applies to both
 * Dave Gibbon's comic strip Come into My Cellar is based on Ray Bradbury's short story with the same name. – Bradbury's story is mentioned above, so this seems superfluous.
 * It's about the comic strip, so I would leave
 * Game designer Shigeru Miyamoto acknowledged Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland as direct influence for the 'super mushroom' in developing Nintendo's Super Mario video game. – this really buries the lead. The important part is surely the mushrooms appearing in the game, with the Alice in Wonderland inspiration of secondary importance here.
 * Edited
 * The celebrated video game franchise The Last of Us – MOS:PUFFERY.
 * Already edited
 * wiped off humanity – wiped out humanity, presumably.
 * Edited, thanks
 * turning infected into zombies – this is missing a definite article or a noun.
 * Edited, thanks
 * Further video games where mushrooms appear as health-boosting collectibles or poisonous mushrooms – that's an odd framing. Also poorly phrased.
 * Already edited
 * Zelda: Breth of the Wild – typo.
 * Already edited
 * A music gerne – typo.
 * Corrected
 * A music gerne called Fungi from the British Virgin Islands is defined as a mixture of many styles and instruments. – does this actually have anything to do with fungi, the biological kingdom? According to the linked article, that's not where the name comes from.
 * Fair enough, I was carried away by the fact that there is a mucis genre called Fungi. It's now deleted.
 * The Czech composer and mycologist Václav Hálek (1937-2014) claimed to have created numerous musical works inspired by fungi. – claimed?
 * Edited
 * Václav Hálek – it is inappropriate to link to a Wikipedia article in a different language without making that obvious to the reader. Use Template:Interlanguage link instead, like this: Václav Hálek [cs].
 * Already edited
 * American composer John Cage (1912-1992) was an enthusiastic amateur mycologist and co-founder the New York Mycological Society. – what's the relevance of this? Being a composer and an amateur mycologist does not in itself imply a connection between the to.
 * He coonnected the two in his artworks. It's now specified.
 * 'Fossora' is the feminine declination of the Latin fossore, meaning "she who digs". – what's the relevance of this?
 * Digging in the heart as in searching for fungi in the soil?
 * 'Fossora' is the feminine declination of the Latin fossore, meaning "she who digs". – the cited source says "it is a word i made up".
 * The source says: "The title, derived from Latin, loosely means “she who digs”" https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/bjork-fossora-album-cover/
 * feminine declination – the word you're looking for is declension.
 * Thanks. I think this was already edited.
 * The Czech composer and mycologist Václav Hálek [...] – already mentioned.
 * Thanks, I moved down the part above
 * A non-exhaustive list of songs inspired by mushrooms (fungi) is given below: – why? This is WP:NOTTVTROPES.
 * I don't know what TV Trope is. Why not, I wonder? THere aren't that many songs inspired by fungi.
 * made of transparent or opaque glass, although coloured glass was used when needed – that seems to cover most bases. What am I missing?
 * Thanks, I reformulated
 * Fungi enter cuisine mostly as fruiting bodies (mushrooms). – is that really true? Yeasts and molds also have very central roles in cuisine.
 * Fair enough, I added, thanks
 * mushrooms can be considered a novel culinary trend – according to whom?
 * According to the cited source - but I removed 'culinary'
 * The 'Shaggy ink cap' mushroom Coprinus comatus produces spores by deliquescing (liquefying, or melting) its cap into a black ink. – already mentioned above.
 * Thanks, deleted
 * it is used in Mexico as the delicacy huitlacoche [...] in Mexico they are highly esteemed as a delicacy, where it is known as huitlacoche – extreme redundancy within the same paragraph, both in terms of repeated information and repeated links.
 * It's transcluded from another page. I have shortened the part transcluded.
 * Huitlacoche is a source of the essential amino acid lysine, which the body requires but cannot manufacture. It also contains levels of beta-glucans similar to, and protein content equal or superior to, most edible fungi. – why discuss the nutritional value here?
 * It's gone now.
 * The link to White Rabbit should go to White Rabbit (song).
 * Thanks, it should be fixed
 * Current research on psychoactive mushrooms shows promises for the treatment of mental-health ailments like chronic depression and anxiety. – why on Earth is this article making biomedical claims?
 * Fair enough, it's gone now
 * A 'mushroom counterculture' has been often fuelled by eccentric, unorthodox, and unfalsifiable hyphotheses and interpretations of the influence of (hallucinogenic) mushrooms in culture developments [...] – who is making this assertion? I seriously doubt the cited source by McKenna (who is used as an example of this) says this.
 * Fair point, that's not the source. I do not have a source at hand and I have deleted almost the netire passage.
 * McKenna hyphotesis – double typo.
 * Already fixed
 * McKenna hyphotesis has been controversial – MOS:CONTROVERSIAL.
 * Thanks, edited

Mycelia or hyphae in art

 * The first paragraph goes way WP:OFFTOPIC.
 * Fair enough, shortened a bunch
 * This image has already been used in a collage elsewhere in the article.
 * fair enough, now deleted
 * Hyphae are the most metabolically active structures of fungi, secreting high amounts of digestive enzymes in the surrounding environment to consume the growth substratum, as well as bioactive metabolites, including substances used in modern medicine (antibiotic and antimicrobial drugs). Hyphae and mycelia grow by extension and branching, and fungi forming those structures are often referred to as 'filamentous fungi'. – relevance?
 * deleted
 * Mycelia and hyphae have seldomly been represented, showcased, transformed, or utilized in the traditional arts due to their invisible, ignored, and overlooked lifestyle and appearance. – source?
 * See my answer to the first comment of "Fungi in art by artistic area"
 * have seldomly been represented [...] due to their invisible, ignored, and overlooked lifestyle and appearance. – they have seldomly been represented because they are ignored and overlooked?
 * not sure I understand. But my sentence was a mess. I reformulated.
 * lifestyle and appearance – "lifestyle"?
 * yepp wrong word, thanks
 * enjoying increasing visibility, marketing, commercialization, and endorsement from celebrities – and Wikipedia articles like this one? Joking aside, this comes off as promotional.
 * fair enough
 * In literature and fiction, hyphae and mycelia are considered (if at all) for their intrinsic properties of decomposition, contamination, and decay. – source?
 * See my answer to the first comment of "Fungi in art by artistic area"
 * The filamentous, prolific, and fast growth of hyphae and mycelia (like moulds) in suitable conditions and growth media often makes these fungal forms good subject of time-lapse photography. – according to whom?
 * I don't have a reference here, meant it as a general obervation. Could be deleted althogether.
 * imagery allegedly inspired by ergotism – if the qualifier "allegedly" is necessary, this doesn't belong. If it isn't necessary, it should be removed. Either way, this needs to be sourced.
 * I reformualted and added a source. Not sure how relevant.
 * The coverage of ergotism goes way WP:OFFTOPIC, arguably into WP:COATRACK territory.
 * I tried to shorten a bit
 * Whereas non-fiction books about fungi often (if not always) include hyphae and mycelia, examples of hyphae and mycelia in literary fiction are much rarer in comparison to mushrooms and spores. When these fungal forms are included in work of fiction, they are often associated with elements of rot and decay. – unsourced.
 * See my answer to the first comment of "Fungi in art by artistic area"
 * fast, radial growth (also called isodiametric growth, that is, with same speed and size in all directions) – this is mentioned elsewhere and could be condensed significantly even if it weren't.
 * I shortened the sentence
 * mycelia and hyphae are often used as time-lapse photography to present filamentous growth and/or decay – source?
 * I don't have a reference here, meant it as a general obervation. Could be deleted althogether.
 * IMDb is not a WP:Reliable source, see WP:IMDb, WP:RS/IMDb and WP:Citing IMDb.
 * Sentence deleted
 * its growth plasticity (e.g. the ability to take virtually any shape upon being cast in a desired form) – I believe "i.e." is intended here, rather than "e.g."
 * Yes, thank you
 * vernacularly called – conspicuous phrasing. The usual phrase is "commonly called", or sometimes "colloquially called". A simple "also called" would also do the trick here.
 * Fair enough, thank you
 * the Stradivarius violin – there are multiple Stradivarius violins, not just one.
 * produce sounds close to those from the Stradivarius violin – this is an WP:EXCEPTIONAL claim, and as such needs exceptional sourcing.
 * I reformualted. I don;t know if it is acceptable now?
 * mixd into – typo.
 * Thanks
 * Current collaborations – MOS:CURRENT.
 * Deleted 'current'
 * Luxury fashion brands like Adidas, Stella McCartney, and Hermès are introducing vegan alternatives to leather made from mycelium. – comes off as promotional.
 * fair enough
 * Remarkable evidence – MOS:FLOWERY.
 * This is transcluded from another page. I haven't gone there and edited yet
 * Mycologist Paul Stamets famously wears a hat made of amadou. – famously? That needs to be backed up with reliable sources saying so, and I daresay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPqWstVnRjQ is not a WP:Reliable source.
 * Same as above
 * Fungi has – subject–verb disagreement.
 * Fixed
 * Fungal mycelia are used as leather-like material (also known as pleather, artificial leather, or synthetic leather), including for high-end fashion design products. – already covered above.
 * This is transcluded from another page, hence the repetition.
 * cruelty-free – that's a value-laden WP:LABEL.
 * Deleted
 * A patent study covering 2009-2018 highlighted the current patent landscape around mycelial materials based on patents filed or pending. – relevance?
 * Fair enough, now removed
 * Mushrooms are traditionally the main form of fungi used for direct consumption in the culinary arts. – this is a subtly but significantly different claim than the one I questioned above. This version is much less dubious. That being said, it's not in the cited source.
 * I haven't taken a look on the comment above yet. I will take a look.
 * an enormous variety – inappropriately emphatic language.
 * Corrected, thanks
 * beverages such as beer, wine, sake, kombucha, coffee, soy sauce, tofu, cheese, or chocolate – not all of these are beverages.
 * True, corrected, thanks
 * just to name a few – inappropriately informal. Also redundant to "including".
 * Deleted, thanks
 * The Michelin-star restaurant The Alchemist in Copenhagen – mentioning the Michelin star comes off as promotional.
 * Deleted
 * Copenhagen (Danemark) – Denmark.
 * COrrected, thanks
 * 'mycelium-based seafood' – this quote does not appear in the cited source.
 * Removed the quotation marks
 * 'mycelium-based bacon.' – this quote does not appear in the cited sources. See also MOS:LQ about punctuation placement.
 * Removed the quotation marks
 * Hapha and mycelium – typo.
 * Corrected
 * gets increased attention in the contemporary art due to its growth and plasticity, and is occasionally the starting point for artworks in the contemporary art – repetitive phrasing.
 * I rephrased
 * the biotechnology-relevant fungus Aspergillus niger – why gloss it like that?
 * Yepp, removed
 * freely available at www.color.bio – I would suggest you review Wikipedia's policy on WP:External links.
 * Yes, I removed the link from the article, and just left it in the external links below

Spores in art

 * The first paragraph goes a fair amount WP:OFFTOPIC.
 * fixed
 * Examples of fungal spores in the arts are rare due to their invisibility and difficulties to treat and manipulate as working matter. – source?
 * I reformulated.
 * Notable exceptions are so called 'spore prints,' or glass sculptures by mycologist William Dillon Weston (1899-1953) representing magnified microfungi and spores (ascospores, basidiospores). – this is a general statement, but was presumably meant to be a specific one.
 * removed
 * Notable exceptions – MOS:NOTABLE.
 * removed
 * 'spore prints,' – MOS:LQ.
 * removed
 * Often, fungal spores are employed as an agent of infection and decay in literature and the graphic arts, whereas recently they are increasingly used in the contemporary art in a positive or neutral way to reflect about processes of transformation, interaction, decay, circular economy, and sustainability. – the cited source doesn't actually say this.
 * I reformulated
 * a flat, white or coloured surface – this is ambiguous. Does it refer to (1) a surface that is flat, and is additionally either white or coloured, or (2) a surface that might be flat, might be white, and might be coloured, but always one of those three?
 * I reformulated
 * spores prints – grammar.
 * Thanks, fixed
 * Whereas non-fictional books about fungi cover spores in the context of fungal spore formation, dispersal, harvesting, or germination, works of literary fiction involving spores are generally linked to infection and decay, and thus have mostly a negative connotation. – source?
 * I reformulated
 * In stories where mushrooms are perceived or represented as threat, spores fulfill the same role. – source?
 * I reformulated and connected with the next sentence, as example
 * In the short story Come into My Cellar, by Ray Bradbury, for example, spores are depicted as an alien invasion. – see my earlier comments about this story.
 * Meaning, mentioned too many times? Faulty. Here, I left it (see comment above).
 * The critically acclaimed and commercially successful video game franchise – MOS:PUFFERY.
 * Fair enough, thanks, removed
 * by Sony Computer Entertainment – relevance of this detail?
 * Removed
 * (Part I, released in 2013; downloadable content adds-on The Last of Us: Left Behind, released in 2014; Part II, released in 2020) – seems like unnecessary detail.
 * Removed
 * There is a lot of detail about The Last of Us. Too much. Approaching WP:COATRACK territory.
 * Removed a lot of details
 * An important part of the plot of The Last of Us game franchise revolves around vaccines against the fungal disease; as opposed to vaccination against viral and bacterial pathogens, research on vaccines for human fungal diseases lags behind, with currently no vaccine available against human fungal pathogens. – this goes way WP:OFFTOPIC.
 * Pity, but removed. I understand the comment. At the same time, I cannot think about many stories related to vaccines, and none realted to fungal vaccines, so this was in my opinion an important clarification.
 * The Last of Us Part II has been awarded best video game of 2020 by The Game Awards. – entirely irrelevant.
 * Removed
 * A television adaptation by HBO starring among others Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, and Nick Offerman as Bill, is due in January 2023. – outdated.
 * Reformulated
 * A television adaptation by HBO – why does it matter that it's by HBO?
 * Removed
 * starring among others Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, and Nick Offerman as Bill – the character names mean nothing to readers unfamiliar with the franchise. Who stars in the show is also not relevant to the topic of this article.
 * Removed
 * The comic strip by Dave Gibbon Come into My Cellar is based on Ray Bradbury's short story with the same name, where fungal spores are an alien entity taking over humanity by mind control, especially of children obsessed with growing mushrooms in their home basement. – again with this story. See my earlier comments about it.
 * I left it. There are not many comic strips where fungi playts a role. I hope to add some more examples (and perhaps someone else will, too!) so that the relative frequency of the mention of this story will be diluted.
 * An adaptation into Italian appeared for the famous comic series Corto Maltese in 1992 with the name Vieni nella mia cantina. – how does this relate to the topic of this article? It's presented entirely devoid of explanatory context.
 * I don't understand this comment. It's a translaton of the story above, so (I think) relevant. The comic series Corto Maltese is a well known name in Italy.

Yeasts, moulds, or lichens in art

 * The first paragraph goes a fair amount WP:OFFTOPIC.
 * Fair enough, now shortened.
 * in the hands of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae – "in the hands of" is inappropriate here (and when the same phrasing recurs later in the same paragraph). See MOS:CLICHE.
 * Deleted
 * Blue cheese is cheese [...] – you don't say? The second "cheese" is redundant.
 * Thanks, deleted
 * Naturalists illustrating their observations often created remarkable work of arts. – that's an opinion.
 * Sentence deleted
 * Does the entirety of the second paragraph come from the two sources cited at the end of it?
 * No, there is more information which comes from other Wikipedia pages, for example the part on 'Libiamo ne' lieti calici' for the indirect influence of yeast (alcohol) in the arts. I agree that more sources can be helpful. In the meantime, I shortened by deleting several sentences.
 * extremely common – inappropriately emphatic language.
 * Changed to "very common"
 * contributed enormously – inappropriately emphatic language.
 * I deleted "enourmously" (and added "alcohol" to refer to "fermentation" in the same sentence)
 * which is but one of – not particularly encyclopedic in tone.
 * I deleted "but"
 * Other testimonies of the indirect effect of yeasts in the arts are the numerous deities and myths are associated with wine and beer. – anacoluthon.
 * I deleted the erroneous second "are"
 * The field of ethnomycology focuses more on the influence of psychoactive fungi on human culture rather than on aspects such as medicine, food production practices, or cultural influence in the arts. – going a bit WP:OFFTOPIC.
 * Deleted
 * Time-lapses photography – grammar.
 * I've deleted the whole sentence
 * Aside from various illustrations, lichens are very seldomly represented in the arts to their slow growth as well as their frailty towards maniputation. – seems to be missing a "due".
 * I deleted the sentence
 * maniputation – typo.
 * Deleted the sentence
 * Notable examples – MOS:NOTABLE.
 * I deleted "notable"
 * Notable examples of yeasts, moulds or lichens in the arts include: – why the list? This is not TV Tropes.
 * I don't know what TV Tropes is. I thought it is a good way to list examples of artworks involving yeasts, moulds, and lichens, as there aren't that many. Are lists not accepted in Wikipedia entries?
 * Ernst Häckel – see my earlier comment about the name. This is also unsourced.
 * Changed to Haeckel
 * dying substances – I think this is meant to say "dyeing substances", i.e. substances used as dyes.
 * It is, thank you
 * In the science fiction novel Trouble with Lichen (1960) by John Wyndham, a chemical extract from a lichen is able to slow down the aging process, with a profound influence on society – unsourced.
 * It is but then there is the link to the main page on the story. Isn't that enough I wonder?
 * In Stephen King's horror short story Gray Matter (1973), a recluse man living with his son drinks a 'foul beer' and slowly transforms into an inhuman blob-like abomination that craves warm beer and shun light, and transmutes into a fungus-like fictional creature – unsourced.
 * Same as above
 * a comedy which won numerous awards at international film festivals – unnecessary detail, comes off as promotional.
 * Reformulated
 * involves 'a young trombone player [...] trying to open an impossible bottle of wine [...] and some mold gets in his way – unpaired quotation mark.
 * In so-called 'mold paintings,' surfaces of buildings or sculptures are intentionally overgrown with moulds to create visually appealing effects – unsourced.
 * I provided the link to the main page for more information
 * In so-called 'mold paintings,' surfaces of buildings or sculptures are intentionally overgrown with moulds to create visually appealing effects – stick to spelling it either "mold" or "mould". Switching back and forth looks unprofessional, especially when (as here) within a single sentence.
 * Corrected, thanks for pointing out
 * The musical provides freely available teaching resources – we are not their PR team. See WP:NOTPROMO.
 * "Freely available" is now gone. To mention the educational resources is in my opinion important, as the muscial aims at being educational
 * however, during baking, microorganisms present in dough are most probably heat deactivated and thus harmless. – not in the cited source. This violates WP:NPOV by engaging in a dispute rather than describing it.
 * It seems I have added the wrong reference (now corrected). I also deleted the reference from Times of India reference as it wasn't a very strong one.
 * the homemade yogurt relied on the fermentation properties of lactic acid baceria (e.g. lactobacilli), rather than yeasts (fungi) – that would make it out of scope for this article then, now wouldn't it?
 * True - the sentences are now deleted
 * unlike bread, yogurt is a culture of living microorganisms – not in the cited source.
 * The praxis is thus considered a food hazard by the US Food and Drug Administration. – that's not actually what the source says. It says that the end product would be considered adulterated, and it gives a completely different reason as to why that is.
 * The sentences are now deleted
 * an artwork which wants to make the audience reflect about the role of yeast biotechnology to confront global issues of contemporary society – that's an appropriate way to describe it for the artist, or an exhibition, or the news media, but it's not appropriate for Wikipedia.
 * Thanks. I reformulated in a way which hopefully is more fitting for Wikipedia.
 * aestic objects – typo.
 * Thanks, fixed
 * Physarum polycephalum is a slime mould (myxomycete) and not a fungus – that would make it out of scope for this article then, now wouldn't it?
 * I would argue that there are many similarities between the approaches, that slime mould have been considered a fungus for quite some time, and thus that the example is fitting; but I don't have strong opposing views in deleting, either.
 * Due to its complex problem-solving abilities, the slime mould is used to mimic or investigate human behaviours. – unsourced.
 * See comment above
 * Physarum polycephalum has been shown to exhibit characteristics similar to those seen in single-celled creatures and eusocial insects. For example, a team of Japanese and Hungarian researchers have shown P. polycephalum can solve the shortest path problem. When grown in a maze with oatmeal at two spots, P. polycephalum retracts from everywhere in the maze, except the shortest route connecting the two food sources. – what on Earth does this have to do with the topic of this article, fungi in art? This is neither a fungus nor art.
 * See comment above

The whole section is deleted from the page
CorradoNai (talk) 03:50, 15 May 2023 (UTC)


 * This entire section is unsourced.
 * This indirect influence of fungi in the arts can be broadly classified into three categories: – you really need to get this WP:ANALYSIS from the sources.
 * Of notable example – MOS:NOTABLE, grammar.
 * insofar part of their artworks have been likely created under the influence of fungal substances while they also depict the effect of fungal metabolites – this is rather difficult to parse.

The whole section is deleted from the page
CorradoNai (talk) 03:51, 15 May 2023 (UTC)


 * This seems like a completely different topic that is not within the scope of the article. Treating this as a different aspect of fungi in art is basically an equivocation.
 * represent a treat – a threat, presumably.
 * damage them by means of mechanical, chemical, or aesthetic damage – damage them by means of damage? That's rather redundant.
 * damage them by means of mechanical, chemical, or aesthetic damage – mechanical and chemical damage would seem to be the processes by which aesthetic damage occurs. This is mixing apples and oranges, in other words.
 * An area of applied research focuses on limiting the growth, harm, and health hazard of mould growing inside buildings, often referred to as 'microbiology of the built environment.' – this doesn't seem to be related to art at all?
 * A recent study – MOS:RECENT.
 * xerophilic (tolerant to desiccation) – not the most helpful gloss as it still uses rather technical language. If I had to gloss it I might say "can withstand dry conditions".
 * Microorganisms like fungi are not only considered in the preservation of artworks do due their decaying and contaminating properties. – this appears to have been mistyped. I'm not entirely sure what it was meant to say.

The whole section is deleted form the page
CorradoNai (talk) 03:52, 15 May 2023 (UTC) CorradoNai (talk) 03:52, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

— Preceding unsigned comment added by CorradoNai (talk • contribs)
 * Artists and scientists jointly defined a framework for fruitful collaborations between (fungal) science and the arts. – this uses a large number of words to convey very little information.
 * The generally low visibility of fungi (other than mushrooms) in the arts can be correlated with the general knowledge and research on fungi, both of which lag behind in comparison with other life science disciplines – this sounds a lot like WP:Original research to me. If it comes from the sources it needs WP:INTEXT attribution, and if it doesn't it needs to be removed.
 * Mycology was named as a natural science discipline of its own in 1836 only – that doesn't strike me as particularly late, actually. It predates e.g. bacteriology and virology significantly, does it not? For that matter, it predates evolutionary biology. From what I can gather, it also predates ecology.
 * the fungi kingdom Funga was defined in 1969 only – redundant phrasing aside, the kingdom is called Fungi.
 * and even today conservation efforts on fungal biodiversity lag behind in comparison to those of species in other kingdoms of life like animals and plants. – overly argumentative in tone.
 * Currently, in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, only over 500 fungi are included, in comparison to over 58,000 plants and 12,000 insects. – I am unable to verify this from the cited source, though I'm sure the relevant information can be found somewhere on the webpage. However, this is just raw data. The phrasing rather forcefully implies that the number of fungi should be higher, but that's an assessment that unequivocally needs to come from WP:Reliable sources. Also MOS:CURRENT.
 * Pretty much the entire first paragraph comes across as an effort to WP:Right great wrongs.
 * Several artistic explorations of fungi have as background, intention or goal the development of sustainable solutions to current environmental issues, or aim at raising awareness on these topics. – this is an example of a sentence that uses far more words than necessary to convey the point. Without even restructuring the sentence, rephrasing it as "Several artistic explorations of fungi have as background, intention or goal relate to the development of sustainable solutions to current environmental issues, or aim at raising awareness on these topics ." (resulting in "Several artistic explorations of fungi relate to the development of sustainable solutions to environmental issues") would reduce the length of the sentence almost by half. It could be condensed even further if the sentence structure were adjusted. This and the following sentence— Several artistic explorations of fungi have as background, intention or goal the development of sustainable solutions to current environmental issues, or aim at raising awareness on these topics. These endeavors often involve a multi-disciplinary approach between artists and fungal practitioners, and transform or utilize fungi for the desired goal. —together consist of 49 words, but could be rewritten with as few as 18—"Sustainable solutions to environmental issues is a recurring theme, often used by artists working together with fungal practitioners."—while still conveying the main points (not that this is necessarily the best way to do it). Sometimes less is more, and this article suffers from a lack of brevity.
 * Occasionally, a commercial outcome beyond the purely artistic approach or experimentation is striven for or achieved. – this is not entirely relevant, and kind of sounds like PR-speak ("we want to make money, but are embarrassed to admit it"),
 * these approaches fall often within the realm of circular economy. – it's good to have links for terms like this that many readers will not be familiar with, but this is an instance where I think it also needs to be explained in the context where it appears.
 * Patents to intellectually protect the technological developments are often filed. – I think this goes without saying.
 * I find it extremely dubious that four pictures of MY-CO SPACE is called for. It comes of as very promotional. One of them is also used elsewhere on the page.
 * Examples of the use of fungi in sustainability approaches fall within production of fungus-based materials for personal use (vegan leather, house furniture) or as construction materials, or for alternative burial practices (bioremediation), just to name a few. – "Examples [...] fall within [...] just to name a few" is a very redundant phrasing. "Just to name a few" should also be avoided for reasons of being unencyclopedic in tone.
 * Fungus-derived material from mycelium are being developed – grammar.
 * Fungus-derived material from mycelium are being developed to create artificial leather for high-end fashion products – this is the third(?) time this is mentioned in the article.
 * and hold promises to be a sustainable alternative to animal-derived leather – extremely promotional in tone.
 * by international artists – what does "international artists" mean? It comes off as a euphemism for "foreigners".
 * More and more artists work with fungi [...] – is that "more and more artists" (an increasing number of artists) or "more and more, artists [...]" (to an increasing extent, artists [...])?
 * communicating the importance of fungi – WP:POV. This is endorsing that viewpoint.
 * birth complicacies – birth complications.
 * There are very few examples of museums entirely devoted to fungi (one example being the Museo del Hongo in Chile). – the first and second parts pull in different directions, so to speak. This would need to be rephrased to not sound incongruent.
 * relevant examples – "relevant" is a MOS:Word to watch that should be used only with care. It's not outright inappropriate here, but it is redundant.
 * Several relevant examples include: – as noted several times above, avoid lists like these.
 * fostering and supporting works able to stimulate dialogues – very promotional.
 * as for example from – grammar.
 * enhance the visibility of fungi – promo-speak.
 * The Fungi Foundation is the first non-governmental organisation dedicated to fungi – being the first is something they would mention to promote themselves, but it is not something that is relevant for Wikipedia to mention here.
 * signatories include Jane Goodall, Michael Pollan, Paul Stamets, Philipp Ball, Alan Rayner and many more – "include" and "and many more" are redundant to each other. This also comes off basically the same way as the "Hello, I'm Tom Hanks. The US government has lost its credibility, so it's borrowing some of mine." joke from The Simpsons.
 * and since 2023 – it's 2023 now, so I'd say it's way too early to say "since 2023" (at least in this context). It's basically making a promise about the future, which runs afoul of WP:CRYSTAL.
 * The last report has been published in 2020. – last or latest? It also was published.

Suggestions for improvement
First, I want to commend the article creator, for this ambitious project and for their time devoted to the subject and the desire to improve the encyclopedia. Hat’s off! Second, here are some issues that immediately jump out (sorry if some of these are redundant with the GA review above):

Form and structural problems
In general, Fungi in art is trying to do too much in one article and is much too sprawling and therefore very hard to follow. The article is trying to cover visual art, literature, cinema/TV, performing arts, comic books, video games, music, architecture, sculpture (which should be grouped with visual art), culinary art, contemporary art (which should be grouped with visual art), games, counterculture (which doesn’t seem to belong in the arts at all), graphic arts (which should be grouped with visual art), etc. It's trying to cover all these areas of knowledge across global geographic locations, and temporal historical and contemporary eras, but the organization of this seems fragmented. Some thoughts/critique regarding improvements:

1) The article is trying to do too many things, it would work better as multiple separate articles with a “See also” section that points to the related articles. The content would work much better as separate articles, for example:


 * A) Visual arts - all of the visual art content could be redirected into Mushrooms in art which already exists; the content here could be merged into that existing article. Then, the content could be organized by art historical era. As an editor familiar with visual arts articles, we need to be cognizant of the reality that there is a tendency for these types of articles to be used for promotional and self-promotion purposes. I feel strongly that the artists included should be Wiki-notable (have their own WP article), otherwise it’s going to get out of control and spammy with every artist and commercial gallery trying to represent every single example. That is not what the encyclopedia is for, that’s what independent websites, social media or blogs are for. This also tends to happen in music, where every non-notable band wants to be mentioned or have an article in WP. We can’t cover everything, nor should we.


 * B) Mushrooms in literature, perhaps organized by genre


 * C) Mushrooms in film/video/TV (Cinematic arts)


 * D) Mushrooms in the performative arts (music, performance art, theatre)


 * E) Mushrooms in the culinary arts or Mushroom cuisine (?) (which could be organized geographically)

2) The article jumps around between various fungal forms during the growth and fruiting cycle (mushrooms, mycelia/hyphae, spores) as part of its organizational structure which I don’t think is important to our general readership. 3) The article is too broad, yeasts, moulds and lichens don’t seem to belong here although they may be/are related, it’s just too confusing.

Sourcing
Improve the sourcing. The source-quality scripts, Novem Linguae’s “CiteHighlighter” and Headbomb’s “Unreliable” are revealing several red, orange and yellow highlighted sources, for example: Atlas Obscura (blog, however an interesting one), Siberian Times, numerous YouTube links used as sources, Vice, Mushroom Hour (streaming site), Evocative (commercial sales site), Forbes (contributor), several IMDb “sources”, FungiFlowsFun, Vice, Cosmopolitan, Times of India, Flossora, Huffington Post, and various primary sources or user-submitted content, etc. I think only high-quality sources should be used, and all of these lower-quality sources should be removed or replaced. See WP:RS for more information on what constitutes a reliable source.

Too many examples
In general, I think the article has too many examples, which seems to be contrary to the creator's wishes to add more examples. With all due respect, Wikipedia is not a hub for people to share their work and for other to be inspired, that is what social media and fan-sites are for. I think the article should be trimmed such that only the most important examples are included (and are highly cited in independent, verifiable RS's).

Thanks again for creating the article, I look forward to seeing how it evolves. Netherzone (talk) 00:42, 18 June 2023 (UTC)


 * Thanks a lot, Netherzone, for your helpful comments. I will keep them in mind in my future edits of Wikipedia (on this page or elsewhere). I like a lot your suggestion to create more focused pages (e.g., on mushrooms in the cinematic arts, etc.) where this page would point towards with "see also". I think this would be a fresh way to start anew. I am still learning about the topic myself. However, my strong suggestion is to keep this page and to not focus only on mushrooms. Reason being that there are more and more artists working with or depicting different fungal forms (including moulds, yeasts, lichens), often within the same artwork. All these works (although I agree with you that examples can be very very different among each other) would fall within the topic of fungi in art. Again, thank you! CorradoNai (talk) 08:54, 19 June 2023 (UTC)
 * I've placed a request for more eyes/feedback on the WikiProject Visual arts, and WikiProject Fungi talk pages. I do not want to discourage you as a new editor,, and I really do admire your ambition with this project, but at this point, I agree with that this is probably a "start over and rewrite the entire article" situation. Netherzone (talk) 16:39, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

Maybe just a new title would be enough to fix this, "Fungi in art and popular culture" (art includes paintings and statues, not television show, films, etc.) No need to start over when so much is already written and researched. Randy Kryn (talk) 13:03, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

Article is all but useless
This was a fork of mushrooms in art which already existed by CorradoNai because they didn't know how to move an article. It has now become an in popular culture article which we don't need. Suggest merging whatever is salvageable back to mushrooms in art and keeping it focused. The current version reads like a Wikipedia article from 2004. The site has changed a lot during that time. Viriditas (talk) 23:05, 12 December 2023 (UTC)


 * I would appreciate a more constructive language and approach. Not everyone has experience editing Wikipedia since 2004, and I was lucky that in my journey so far I encountered experienced Wikipedians who has been encouraging and helpful. This comment feels like an Occam's Axe and it's rather discouraging. Important is to say that mushrooms are fungi and not vice versa, so if anything, mushrooms in art would be a subpage of fungi in art. So this should explain why I am not happy with the comment from a factual point of view. I still agree that the page can be improved, and it is my intention to tackle it at some point according to the suggestion of Netherzone, that is by creating new, more focussed pages (say, "Mould in art") linked to a trimmed-down version of this page. Thanks CorradoNai (talk) 05:21, 13 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Start with the lead section. You've got the following topics:
 * Fungi are a common theme
 * or working material in art
 * They appear in many different artworks around the world
 * Artists may be indirectly influenced by fungi via derived substances. They may depict the effects of these substances, make art under the influence of these substances, or in some cases, both.
 * You've got four separate articles in the lead section alone. That's not how we write articles.  You need to take a step back and tackle one article at a time and focus on only one topical treatment per article.  That's the problem.  And you did fork mushrooms in art because you couldn't move it, which is called a redundant content fork.  So pick a subtopic, any subtopic, and write a single article about it, not an article about four separate topics. It's really that simple.  And I'm sorry you didn't like my characterization of the problem, but the truth is, I was being extremely generous.  This isn't really a Wikipedia page circa 2004, it's an Everything2 article circa the year 2000.  I think the easiest way to move on from here is to start working on one single sub-article, and when you are done, remove that material from this article.  That will improve two articles at the same time and will show some kind of progress.  It will also help if you take a more modular approach to intersecting subjects.  A good way to get a handle on this is to see how large topics are treated on Wikipedia.  A relatively recent subject that demonstrates this modular approach is the COVID-19 topic area.  As you can imagine, there are an enormous number of subtopics connecting to the main subject.  But there isn't a top-level topic treatment like this that tries to shoehorn all the subtopics into one page.  Take a look at how the community writes about that subject to see how all the parts interact. Viriditas (talk) 09:09, 13 December 2023 (UTC)
 * @CorradoNai, your efforts are appreciated but there are many issues with the article, and maybe it's best that it is re-written from scratch. The GA review pointed out some of the problems, in addition to those I pointed out above. You made some improvements, but many issues still exist.
 * Please don't be discouraged by @Viriditas (or any other editor's) comments, I have found that direct communication on-wiki is healthy communication, and they are obviously a highly experienced editor here in good faith. And their observations are correct. They are here to help. Here's a tip: try not to take anything personally here; 99.9% of comments other editors make are in the spirit of improving the encyclopedia, and are not made to tear someone down.
 * I was thinking about trimming the article down to a short stub a few paragraphs long, but Viriditas' plan of action is a better idea. I'm wondering if the article should be moved from article space to draftspace or to userspace where it can be worked on. It's not ready for article space in its current state. Netherzone (talk) 15:06, 13 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Nowhere I see extreme generosity in these comments by @Viriditas, starting with the very title of this thread. That said, I am not taking it personally. I am grateful for comments helping the page improving, even harsh ones. Again, while agreeing that the page needs improving, I do not agree that this was a case of content fork. Mushrooms are fungi and not vice versa; that is, the scope of a "fungi in art" page is way, way bigger than a "mushrooms in art" one. I would tend to disagree about moving the article to a draftspace or userspace, as it would miss the chance of having more people commenting and editing it (if I am not mistaken?). I am not sure anymore what's the difference between both plans of action (Viriditas' and Netherzone's) at this point, but my understanding is to create new, more focussed pages (say, "Mould in art") linked to a trimmed-down version of this page. If it is a matter of timing, this won't happen within the next few months. Researching and creating this page has been a monumental work, and I will need to have enough time to get back to it and address properly, which I do not have at the moment. Thanks both CorradoNai (talk) 18:01, 13 December 2023 (UTC)
 * @CorradoNai, with all due respect, I was about to nominate the article for deletion AFD because of the shape it is/was in before thinking of stubbifying it. The reason is that it seems like TNT'ing is the best solution for resolving the many problems. The only reason I did not do that is I could see how much time you devoted to it, however I did not realize that you would not be actively improving it for half a year, and now are saying that you still cannot work on it for months. That is not the correct use of article space, IMO. That is  precisely  what draft space or user space is for: incubation and development before publishing to the public article space. It's not a great idea to expect others to clean up the article for you, especially such a lengthy one.
 * I don't want to speak for Viriditas, but that may be similar to what they meant by their comment that they were being extremely generous. Netherzone (talk) 18:50, 13 December 2023 (UTC)
 * It was not my intention to leave the page stading for many months, but life happens, and certainly I am not expecting other to clean the article for me. At the same time it is important to acknowledge the great feedbacks and helps received by many others, including those who have voiced different (read: more positive) opinions and different (read: more constructive) ways to proceed than those raised by the creator of this topic. I'd be reluctant to take down the page without hearing other feedback. I still think the language and tone used here are wrong. Thank you CorradoNai (talk) 05:29, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * @CorradoNai, sorry to hear that you feel that the tone and language is "wrong". I tried to commend you multiple times for your work and the time you spent, and even left you a friendly message on your talk page months ago to reach out. It's best not to take anything personally here. We are an encyclopedia (not a web host or blog) and not a school where you would get a different type of feedback from your teachers and mentors. WP editors are 99% unpaid volunteers and we do what we believe is best for the quality and integrity of the encyclopedia within our policies and guidelines such as the Manual of Style.
 * By the way, you should not be citing your own work such as journal articles you wrote and the like as that is a conflict of interest - see WP:COI for more information. Also WP:OR may be helpful for you to read.
 * I have started to help out with clean up an trimming the article. I began by moving the Mushrooms in art content below on this talk page so you or other editors can move it to the main article Mushrooms in art. I'll do that with other sections so that each section is a summary and spin-off articles could be created (such as mycelium in art, spores and art, lichens and art, etc. I hope you will carve out time in your schedule for this (I've got a full time job so I'm not sure about how much time I can devote to this project.) Netherzone (talk) 22:26, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Lots of work has been done on this page after the review and the corrections, so I don't think merging or forking is really needed. The two pages, the one on mushrooms in art and this one, cover the topic. Randy Kryn (talk) 23:53, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Hi Randy, and happy holidays to you and yours. I certainly agree that a lot of work went into this article which I have expressed to the creator on numerous occasions. I also agree with other editors that it needs a lot of work towards improvement and is unwieldy. A large part of this article is a content fork from the Mushrooms in art article which was already in existence since 2020. It makes sense to move content to that article from here which is why I moved the content below, so anyone who is interested could jump into that project if @CorradoNai cannot find the time to do so. I then wrote a summary for the section on this article and left the pointer to the main article intact. Also, as Viriditas states in their 09:09, 12/13/23 comment above, there arefour separate articles in the lead section alone. It's very confusing that there is so much packed into this article. As written it is not functioning well as a BROADTOPIC article. Netherzone (talk) 17:20, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I appreciate your work @Netherzone. Just to briefly comment that I am aware of avoiding self-citation and I have not done it (the page Mushrooms in art wasn't created by me). I don't take comments personally; equally, my comment that the language used in this topic is wrong should not be taken personally. It was not directed to you but to the creater of this topic who seems to have disappeared since. I see a fetishism (not only here) toward long time Wikipedians which is worrying. Just a slightly caustic comment as I see many different views from many more Wikipedians. Anyways, anything which will help this page and Wikipedia and I am happy with - as long as it doesn't come with an "Ah, this is useless" Thanks again CorradoNai (talk) 08:44, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you again CorradoNai, and good luck with your activities over the next few months. I look forward to working together on improvements to this article and brainstorming on the topic in general when your schedule frees up. There is a lot of potential to work with here. One quick question, is the article written in British English or American English, or another variant? I wanted to check that for consistency. Netherzone (talk) 10:37, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks @Netherzone, be assured that your (and others) feedback have been very helpful. I really look forward to work again on this, it just needs to be done once I have good chunks of time available. I guess I aimed for British English, but being a non-native speaker I might have mispelled some. Thank you CorradoNai (talk) 11:57, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

Begin in earnest clean up and trimming of article
To start clean up and trimming, I will be moving the entire section on Mushrooms to the talk page, and write a short summary (leaving the link to the main article on Mushrooms in art intact). That content can then be moved by anyone from this talk page to the Mushrooms in art article. Netherzone (talk) 21:49, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

Mushrooms in art - moving content here
NOTE: Moving content and references here from articlespace so it can be used to improve the Mushrooms in art as well as providing a resource here if there are additional or better examples to use in the summary. Any citation errors this may have caused will/can be fixed in future edits.

Early examples of mushrooms in art include:

 * Drawings of masked shamans with mushrooms sprouting from their heads (c. 9500 BCE), in Algeria
 * Mushroom stones (c. 1500 BCE), in Guatemala
 * Petroglyphs of people (c. 0 CE) with mushroom-shaped heads from the Bronze Age, near the Pegtymel River in Siberia.

Contemporary artists are more interested in fungi than ever before.

Given the mysterious, seasonal, sudden, and at times inexplicable appearance of mushrooms, as well as the hallucinogenic or toxic effects of some species, their depiction in ethnic, classic and modern art (around 1860–1970) is often associated in Western art with the macabre, ambiguous, dangerous, mystic, obscene, disgusting, alien, or curious in paintings, illustrations, and works of fiction and literature. British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in his novel Sir Nigel:


 * "The fields were spotted with monstrous fungi of a size and color never matched before—scarlet and mauve and liver and black. It was as though the sick earth had burst into foul pustules; mildew and lichen mottled the walls, and with that filthy crop Death sprang also from the water-soaked earth."

In Asian or folk art, mushrooms are generally depicted in a more positive or mystical way than in Western art.

Graphic arts


Visual artists representing mushrooms have been very prolific throughout history. The Registry of Mushrooms in Works of Art, from the North American Mycological Association, curates an extensive virtual collection of mushrooms in the visual arts. According to the registry, examples before the 15th century are rare, thus examples abound from European visual arts from 1500 onwards are the focal point. The registry includes periods such as the Renaissance, the Baroque, Flemish, and Romantic periods.

The shaggy ink cap (Coprinus comatus) and the common ink cap (Coprinus atramentaria) mushrooms produce black ink which is used in drawing, illustration, and calligraphy.

Paintings, tapestries, and illustrations
Artists, painters, illustrators, naturalists, and scientists have depicted mushrooms in their artworks for millennia. Edible species, such as Caesar's mushroom (Amanita caesarea) and the King bolete (Boletus edulis), are more commonly depicted than toxic ones. Mushrooms abound in Italian, Flemish, Germanic, and Dutch Baroque landscapes and still lifes. Landscape paintings involving mushrooms occasionally depict mushroom or truffle hunting.

Whereas historical British artworks tend to be considered to be influenced by a 'mycophobe' attitude, 19th-century Victorian fairy paintings depicting imaginary scenes involving fairies and other fantastic creatures often featured mushrooms. A great number of Victorian-era illustrators and children-book authors depicted mushrooms in their artworks, including Beatrix Potter, Hilda Boswell, Molly Brett, Arthur Rackham, Charles Robinson, and Cicely Mary Barker.



Visual artists who depicted mushrooms include:
 * Lewis David von Schweinitz (1780–1834): illustrations of over 1000 fungal species which along with his contribution to mycology earned him the title of "Father of North American Mycology".
 * Charles Tulasne (1816–1884)
 * Mary Elizabeth Banning (1822–1903): Mary Banning is best known as the author of The Fungi of Maryland, an unpublished manuscript containing scientific descriptions, mycological anecdotes, and 174 13" by 15" watercolor paintings of fungal species. The New York State Museum describes these paintings as "extraordinary...a blend of science and folk art, scientifically accurate and lovely to look at."
 * Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919)
 * Violetta White Delafield (1875-1949): creations of around 600 illustrations of fungi.
 * Alexander Viazmensky

Photography
Amateur and professional photographs of mushrooms abound on the Internet. Non-fiction books about fungi, especially those involving the identification of fungi, often include photographs of fungal species and their fruiting bodies. The book by Scott Chimileski and Roberto Kolter Life at the Edge of Sight: A Photographic Exploration of the Microbial World showcases 'the invisible world waiting in plain sight,' including fungi. Since 2005, the North American Mycological Association (NAMA) organises an annual Photography Art Contest on mushrooms and fungi.

In fiction
Works of literary fiction involving mushrooms and fungi are often linked to infection, decay, toxicity, mystery, fantasy, and ambiguity, and thus have mostly a negative connotation. Examples of mushrooms depicted or involved in a positive way include:


 * the children's book The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (1954) by Eleanor Cameron
 * the science-fiction novel Omnivore (1968) by Piers Anthony (part of the Of Man and Manta trilogy)
 * The Way Through the Woods: On Mushrooms and Mourning (2019) by Long Litt Woon.

In line with the assumption by Robert Gordon Wasson and Valentina Pavlovna Wasson that Russian society traditionally has more affinity to mushrooms, a scene of mushroom foraging in Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is associated with love, family, and a sense of commonality. During the Victorian era, fungi started to acquire a more playful, childish, or jolly role in works of literary fiction. The author, artist, illustrator, and mycologist Beatrix Potter created meticulous and accurate illustrations of mushrooms, including in her children-book series of Peter Rabbit.

Authors who have used fungi as a plot device include:


 * Percy Shelley
 * D.H. Lawrence
 * H.G. Wells
 * Ray Bradbury

Fungi are a common trope in science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy and crime fiction. In Ray Bradbury's "Come into My Cellar", mushrooms are alien invaders threatening society. The short story is one of the rare examples in which several forms of fungi appear (spores and mushrooms): In the story, an alien form of spores from fungi lands on Earth and compels humans, and kids in particular, to grow mushrooms and infect more persons, thus using humans as a medium of propagation of fungi through mind control. Fungi have occasionally appeared in the murder mystery literature due to their toxicity. Crime and detective writer Agatha Christie has used mushrooms as murder weapons in her crime fiction.

The use of (toxic) mushrooms in fiction does not often reflect reality, either because a misidentified species is used (for example, a non-toxic one), because the preparation or intake of the toxic is wrong (for example, when not enough toxin is present, or when it should be deactivated by cooking), or because the progress of poisoning is unrealistic (for example, if the toxin kills too quickly).

The "Bad Bug Bookclub" at Manchester Metropolitan University is a regular book club run by Joanna Verran that discusses literary works on microorganisms, including fungi. The quarterly periodical FUNGI Magazine runs a column called Bookshelf Fungi reviewing fiction and non-fiction books on fungi.

In poetry
Similar to in Western literature, fungi in Western culture poetry are often associated with negative feelings or sentiments. The poem The Mushroom (1896) by Emily Dickinson is unsympathetic towards mushrooms. American author of weird horror and supernatural fiction H. P. Lovecraft created a collection of cosmic horror sonnets with fungi as subjects called Fungi from Yuggoth (1929–30). Margaret Atwood's poem Mushrooms (1981) explores the topics of the life cycle and nature. The poem by Neil Gaiman, The Mushroom Hunters, is a poem touching, through the lens of mushroom hunting throughout history, on the topics of womanhood, human creation, and destruction. The poem was written for 'Universe in Verse,' a festival combining science with poetry, and won the Rhysling Award for best long poem in 2017. The poem features in a short animated video with the voice-over of Amanda Palmer.

Several hundred Japanese haiku are about mushroom hunting. Many of them were written by poets of the Nara, Edo and Meiji periods, such as:


 * Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694)
 * Kitamura Koshun (1650–1697)
 * Mukai Kyorai (1651–1704)
 * Naitō Jōsō (1662–1704)
 * Hattori Ransetsu (1654–1707)
 * Takarai Kikaku (1661–1707)
 * Hirose Izen (1688?–1711)
 * Morikawa Kyoriku (1656–1715)
 * Yamaguchi Sodō (1642–1716)
 * Kagami Shikō (1665–1731)
 * Kumotsu Suikoku (1682–1734)
 * Kuroyanagi Shōha (1727–1772)

Storytelling, oral tradition, myth, and folklore
Through storytelling and oral tradition, fungi have influenced mythology, folklore, and religions across civilizations and historical periods. The psychoactive properties of certain fungi have contributed to the involvement of fungi in myth and folklore. In her essay Jesus if a Fungal God, author Sophie Strand writes:


 * "As we learn more about fungi, let us embrace that they have always been here. Beneath our feet. And inside our most popular myths.".

There are numerous deities associated with wine and beer, which is an indirect effect of fungi in the arts. Fungi play a role in several religions, for example through fermentation (e.g. wine) and leavening (e.g. bread). In the Parable of the Leaven, one of the Parables of Jesus, the growth of the Kingdom of God is akin to the leavening of bread through yeast. According to Matthew 13:33 (and, similarly, to Luke 13:20-21):


 * "He told them still another parable: 'The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.'"

However, yeast is associated with corruption in other passages of the New Testament, as in Luke 12:1:


 * "Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: 'Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.'"

Some scholars argue that the Egyptian God of the afterlife Osiris is a personification of entheogenic mushrooms. As evidence, they indicate that Egyptian crowns are shaped like primordia of Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms. The Egyptian tale known as Cheops and the Magicians illustrates the growth of mushrooms on barley. In the Chinese classic tale The Mountain and the Sea, the soul of a young woman becomes a mushroom as a symbol of immortality. In Lithuanian and Baltic mythology, fungi are considered the fingers of Velnias, the God of the underworld, reaching up from the underground to feed the poor. In Slovenia, there is a folk ritual to roll on the ground during thunder as a way to increase the amount of mushrooms harvested. Baltic and Ugric religions include mushroom elements, including a "Mother of Mushrooms". The popular tale The War of the Mushrooms is told in several Slavic cultures. (After the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, an exhibition at the Ukrainian Museum in New York revisited the classic story in light of current events. ) The supernatural being Baba Yaga in Slavic folklore is often associated with mushrooms. In some Russian tales, it often appears as a villainous wizard called Mukhomor, literally 'poison mushroom,' which is assumed to be derived from the fly agaric.

The fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is a mushroom with characteristic red cap and white dots and has greatly infiltrated folklore with mainstream popularity.

According to several interpretations, the legendary figure of Santa Claus may have been influenced by the fly agaric; evidence includes the use by Saami shamans in the Lapland region, who would visit the homes of people by reindeer-drawn sleds and enter through the chimney when the entrance door was stuck by snowfalls; the fondness of reindeers in eating fly agaric mushrooms; the belief by Saami people that whoever eats an Amanita muscaria will resemble it, becoming among other things, plump and reddish; and the sense of flying that consumption of fly agaric might induce.

The stinkhorn Phallus indusiatus (or "veiled lady") has entered folklore across many cultures, probably due to its peculiar shape. In French, P. indusiatus is commonly called le satyre voilé ('the veiled satyr,' from the male nature spirit in Greek mythology).

Jews have a long tradition of eating mushrooms, which are considered Kosher in Jewish dietary law, and mushrooms have been referred to as "Jew's Meat" at least in parts of current Germany (Rhineland area), where the term is used as a dialect term for the German "Pilz" according to the Rheinisches Wörterbuch. Mushrooms have been used as an instrument for anti-Semitic discrimination or propaganda over the centuries. This has a disparaging connotation, especially during the Middle Ages, when mushrooms were considered toxic and disgusting. In the infamous 1938 children-book Der Giftpilz from Nazi Germany, Jews are depicted as poisonous and difficult to distinguish from 'Gentiles'.

Non-fiction books
There is a large corpus of literature on mushrooms, including foraging, identifying, growing, and cultivating fungi. The book The Mushroom at the End of the World by Chinese-American anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing on matsutake mushrooms offers insights into the cultural relevance and the significance of fungi for modern society, circularity, and decay. Authors of non-fictional books about fungi contribute to the increased popularity and development of mycology, fungal ecology, mycoremediation, fungal conservation, biocontrol, medicinal fungi, mushroom gathering and identification, and fungal research.

Cinema, TV shows, and motion pictures
Adaptations of literary fiction about fungi into motion pictures include the 2016 British post-apocalyptic science fiction horror movie The Girl with All the Gifts, based on the novel with the same title; and the 1963 Japanese horror film Matango (マタンゴ) directed by Ishirō Honda, partially based on William Hope Hodgson's short story The Voice in the Night (1907). The documentary Fantastic Fungi (2019), primarily led by mycologist Paul Stamets, presents the world of fungi using time-lapse photography. The documentary The Mushroom Speaks (2001) by Marion Neumann covers topics such as decay, bioremediation, and symbiosis by following scientists, experts, and fungal pioneers.

Film festivals dedicated to fungi include the Fungi Film Festival (since 2021), by Radical Mycology author Peter McCoy; and the UK Fungus Day Film Festival (since 2022), by the British Mycological Society.

Performing arts
The American stand-up comedian and satirist Bill Hicks drew inspiration from Terence McKenna's 'Stoned Ape Theory' (that psilocybin was crucial in the development of human nature ) in his 1993 show Revelation.

Comic books and video games
In The Smurfs, smurfs inhabit houses resembling mushrooms. American fantasy and science fiction comic book artist Frank Frazetta illustrated the cover image of the 1964 edition of the novel The Secret People (1935) by John Beynon (pseudonym of John Wyndham), in which fictive 'little people' inhabit areas with giant mushrooms. In Nintendo's Super Mario video game, the 'super mushroom' helps the character grow in size. The video game franchise The Last of Us is set in a post-apocalyptic United States, after spores of a mutant fungus wiped out humanity, turning infected people into zombies. Other video games where mushrooms appear include Skyrim (2011), Stardew Valley (2016), and Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017).

Music
Mushrooms have an influence on music as a subject, cultural reference, or medium for music creation. Numerous musicians, bands, composers, and lyricists mentioned or drew inspiration from fungi. Music can be created utilizing fungi, as in the process of bio-sonification. American composer John Cage (1912–1992) was an enthusiastic amateur mycologist and co-founder of the New York Mycological Society who often merged his two passions in his artworks.

Music inspired by
Numerous musicians, bands, composers, and lyricists mentioned or drew inspiration from fungi, like the Israeli psychedelic trance band Infected Mushroom, the US heavy metal band Mushroomhead, Russian romantic composer Modest Mussorgsky's (1839-1881) song Gathering Mushrooms, Igor Stravinsky's (1882-1971) How the Mushrooms went to War, and many more. In Women Gathering Mushrooms, the musicologist Louis Sarno (1954-2017) recorded women from the Central Africa Mbenga pygmy tribe of the Aka (also Biaka, Bayaka, Babenzele) sideclinging while collecting mushrooms, resulting in a polyphonic composition. According to mycologist and author Merlin Sheldrake, the activity of the gatherers above ground mirrors the fungal life below ground, as "mycelium is polyphony in bodily form". Icelandic avant-garde musician Björk's 2022 album Fossora (including tracks such as Mycelia, Sorrowful Soil, and Fungal City) is referred to as her "mushroom album". 'Fossora' can be translated from Latin into "she who digs". The rap artist 'FungiFlows' composes lyrics inspired by fungi and mushrooms while wearing a fly-agaric-shaped hat. The Czech composer and mycologist Václav Hálek (1937–2014) is said to have composed over 1,500 symphonies inspired by fungi, including the composition called Mycosymphony.

A non-exhaustive list of songs inspired by mushrooms (fungi) is given below:
 * Mushroom Cantata by Lepo Sumera
 * Mycosymphony by Václav Hálek
 * Solar Waltz (2018) by Cosmo Sheldrake
 * Fungus (2021) by The Narcissist Cookbook
 * Mycelia (2022) by Björk
 * Fungal City (2022) by Björk

Music created with
Fungi are occasionally a direct medium for the creation of music. With the use of sonification and synthezisers, musicians and bioartists are able to create sounds and music by converting mushrooms' bioelectric signals. The 'Nanotopia Midnight Mushroom Music' is a radio station devoted to streaming mushroom-generated music. Some artists creating music by sonicating mushrooms note that different mushrooms produce different sounds: for example, Ganoderma lucidum produces melodic sounds, while Pleurotus ostreatus produces constant sounds.

Architecture and sculptures
In architecture and sculpture, mushrooms are mostly represented or showcased. Mushrooms are carved in buildings or depicted in sculptures or potteries, like pre-Columbian pottery mushrooms from Mesoamerica. At the entrance of Park Güell by Catalan modernist architect Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926), the Porter's Lodge pavilion features a lookout tower with a mushroom-shaped dome, probably inspired by Amanita muscaria or by stinkhorns. The sculpture Triple Mycomorph by Bernard Reynolds (1915–1997) at Christchurch Mansion holds a resemblance with the stinkhorn mushroom Phallus indusiatus. Mushrooms are occasionally showcased by artists who collect, manipulate, preserve, and exhibit them, as in the 'Mind The Fungi' exhibition (2019-2020) at Futurium in Berlin (Germany).

The mycologist William Dillon Weston (1899-1953; sometimes also spelled Dillon-Weston ) created glass sculptures of microfungi, mostly plant pathogens, to fight bouts of insomnia. The artworks represent either magnified fungi (usually up to 400X times for fungi; up to 1200X for spores) or real-size plants affected by fungi (like in Ustilago maydis and Phytophthora infestans) and are made mostly of transparent or opaque glass. The sculptures are mostly between 5–20 cm in size and often do not have a base and stand on the mycelium. Almost a hundred glass sculptures are conserved at the Whipple Museum in Cambridge (UK). Fungi represented are among others species from the genera Alternaria, Botrytis, Penicillium, Cordyceps, Sclerotinia, Fusarium, Puccinia as well as spores (ascospores, basidiospores). The other known example of glass sculptures representing (among others) fungi is the Blaschka Glass Flowers at Harvard Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts (US).

Culinary arts
Fungi enter cuisine mostly as fruiting bodies (mushrooms), yeasts, or moulds. Mushrooms are a source of protein, a staple in many cultures and cuisines, and a common ingredient in many recipes worldwide. The North American Mycological Association (NAMA) hosts a series of resources to encourage all aspects of 'mycophagy.' Most mushrooms sold commercially are the button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), commonly known as champignons. Many mushrooms, including some coveted in haute cuisine, like truffles and boletus, cannot be cultivated and need to be harvested. Due to their dietary properties and their suitability as a meat substitute, mushrooms can be considered a novel trend, including the cultivation and consumption of species that only recently became popular in cooking, like Cordyceps. Many fungi are considered delicacies in cuisine and gastronomy. Truffles, which are occasionally confused with tubers (storage organs in plants, like potatoes), are subterranean fruiting bodies (that is, mushrooms that grow below ground) of certain fungi belonging to the genera Tuber, Geopora, Peziza, Choiromyces, and others. Truffles have developed a distinctive aroma as a spore-dispersion strategy: Instead of relying on wind and other mechanical means, truffles attract animals that eat them and carry their spores to new locations after defecation. Both the mushroom and the black ink of C. comatus and Coprinopsis atramentaria (the 'Common ink cap') are edible, but adverse effects might be felt if consumed together with alcohol. For this reason, C. atramentaria is also called "tippler's bane".

Contemporary arts
Contemporary artworks involving fungi usually handle or utilize mycelia, yeasts, and other fungal forms rather than mushrooms. Fungi are occasionally used conceptually (that is, to communicate their capabilities and potential). The video and light artist Philipp Frank creates so-called 'projection mapping' by casting light effects on mushrooms growing in nature in the 'Funky Funghy' project.

Social games (board games, card games)
Plant pathology scientist Lisa Vaillancourt at the University of Kentucky developed a 'Fungal Mating Game' based on standard card decks as an educational tool for students to better understand the process and concept of fungal mating using the mating of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast), Neurospora crassa, Ustilago maydis, and Schizophyllum commune as an example. The game can be played both collaboratively and competitively.

Yeasts, molds and lichens
This should be a separate article, Yeasts, molds and lichens in art or some sort of similar name.

Yeasts, moulds, or lichens
Many fungi do not reproduce and disperse by spores. Instead, they live as single cells and reproduce by budding or fission as in yeasts, or live in a symbiosis with an algal or cyanobacterial partner as in lichens. Despite being unicellular, yeasts can reproduce sexually by mating and can occasionally grow in a filamentous way. Moulds do form spores ('asexual spores') but no mushrooms, and grow into filaments (hyphae and mycelia) which thrive in moist environments and spoil food. Moulds, like those which spoil food, are major natural producers of antibiotics, like penicillin. Yeasts, moulds, and lichens did not enter into the arts very often and their direct influence in the arts remains modest. Indirectly, yeasts have influenced art, as alcohol fermentation has contributed to different cultures around the globe and across time; in La traviata (1853) by Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, for example, one of the best-known opera melodies is 'Libiamo ne' lieti calici' (in English, translated into "Let's drink from the joyful cups"), which is one of numerous brindisi (toast) hymn. Other testimonies of the indirect effect of yeasts in the arts are the numerous deities and myths associated with wine and beer. Yeasts and moulds are often an agent of decay and contamination in the arts, whereas recently they are increasingly used in contemporary art in a positive or neutral way to reflect on processes of transformation, interaction, decay, circular economy, and sustainability.

Examples of yeasts, moulds or lichens in the arts include:
 * Ernst Haeckel illustrations of lichens in Kunstformen der Natur (1904)
 * Chemical compounds from some lichens are used as dyeing substances (this is also true for compounds derived from mushrooms )
 * In the science fiction novel Trouble with Lichen (1960) by John Wyndham, a chemical extract from a lichen is able to slow down the aging process, with a profound influence on society
 * In Stephen King's horror short story Gray Matter (1973), a recluse man living with his son drinks a 'foul beer' and slowly transforms into an inhuman blob-like abomination that craves warm beer and shuns light and transmutes into a fungus-like fictional creature
 * The novel Lichenwald (2019) by Ellen King Rice, author of 'Mushroom Thrillers' is a crime story involving lichens, dementia, and manipulations
 * The Dutch textile artist Lizan Freijsen created the Fungal Wall for the microbe museum Micropia, together with TextielMuseum Tilburg, a wall-sized tapestry with tufting resembling mould growth
 * From Peel to Peel project (2018) by biodesigner Emma Sicher, using the metabolic properties of yeasts and bacteria to create cellulose from food waste as biodegradable packaging material
 * In so-called 'mould paintings,' surfaces of buildings or sculptures are intentionally overgrown with moulds to create visually appealing effects
 * The contemporary artist Kathleen Ryan creates oversized, composite sculptures of rotting fruits, like in the Bad Fruit series (2020)

Performative arts (theatre, comedy, dance, performance art)
The musical theatre show The Mould That Changed the World is a show running both in the US (in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia) and the UK (in Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland) which centers around the life and legacy of Alexander Fleming, the Scottish discoverer of the antibiotic penicillin and 1945 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine. Alexander Fleming discovered in 1928 during his work as bacteriologist that bacteria growing on a Petri dish were inhibited by a mould contamination, namely from a fungus of the genus Penicillium, from which the antibiotic name 'penicillin' derives. The story involves jumps in time to highlight the legacy of the discovery of antibiotics and is partly set during the Great War, when Alexander Fleming served as a private, as well as the personification of some characters (e.g. Mother Earth). The musical has been developed for educational purposes to raise awareness against the tremendous, worldwide threat that the rise of antimicrobial resistance poses. The musical provides teaching resources and has been developed with the participation of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC). The musical choir is composed of both professional singers and actors as well as health care professionals, lab technicians, and scientists, and is an example of an artistic project merging science and the arts.

The dance contest for scientists called 'Dance your Ph.D.' sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an annual competition established in 2008 encouraging communication and education of complex scientific topics through interpretative dance. All scientific fields and areas of research are covered (biology, chemistry, physics, and social science), and several contestant entries involved fungi, including some winners. The 2014 winner was plant pathologist and aerial acrobat Uma Nagendra from the University of Georgia (Athens) with Plant-Soil Feedbacks After Severe Tornado Damage, a trapeze-circus dance representing the effect of extreme environmental events (like tornadoes) on tree seedlings and the positive effect those events can have with regard to withstanding phytopathogenic fungi. The 2022 winner was Lithuanian scientist Povilas Šimonis from Vilnius University with Electroporation of Yeast Cells, a dance illustrating the effect of electroporation (a method involving pulses of electricity to deactivate cells, or make them more porous and prone to acquire extracellular DNA, a crucial step in genetic engineering) on yeasts.

Contemporary arts
In the contemporary arts, works involving fungi are often interactive and/or performative and tend to transform and utilize fungi rather than merely represent and showcase them. In her work, Myconnect (2013), bioartist Saša Spačal invites the audience to interact with the artwork, involving Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) or Oyster mushrooms (from the genus Pleurotus), which takes the form of a capsule connecting the human with the fungus on a sensory level. Bioartists use yeasts to provoke a reflection on genetic engineering. Slovenian intermedia artist Maja Smrekar's created yoghurt using genetically-modified yeast with a gene from the artist herself in Maya Yoghurt (2012). In 2015, the blogger and feminist Zoe Stavri baked sourdough bread using yeast she isolated from her own vaginal yeast infection using a Dildo, which she then mixed with flour and water and let leaven, and finally ate. The activity, which she documented both on her blog posts and on social media, tagging it with the hashtag #cuntsourdough, caused a lot of discussion on social media, including repulsion, hate messages, and food safety concerns, as the practice did not involve axenic isolation of the leavening yeast; however, during baking, microorganisms present in the dough are most probably heat deactivated and thus harmless. As the activist herself noted: "People have been making and eating sourdough [with wild yeasts] for millennia." People had experimented before with microorganisms from the vaginal microbiota to create food and incite a reflection on the topic of food fermentation and female bodily autonomy and self-determination.

The exhibition Fermenting Futures (2022) by bioartists Alex May and Anna Dumitriu in collaboration with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) is an artwork focusing on the role of yeast biotechnology confronting global issues of contemporary society. The artist cultured and showcased fermentation flasks of Pichia pastoris used for the bioconversion of carbon dioxide into biodegradable plastics. The artwork The Bioarchaeology of Yeast recreates by moulding the biodeterioration marks left by certain yeasts, like black yeasts, on work of art and sculptures, and displays them as aesthetic objects, reflecting on the process of erosion; the installation Culture used CRISPR technology to confer to a non-fermenting strain of Pichia pastoris the ability to ferment and work as a leavening agent as the baker's yeast. A team of artists and researchers developed novel art techniques using the model (that is, widely studied in laboratory research) mould Aspergillus nidulans. The artist-scientist team described the development of two new techniques: 'Fungal Dot Painting' and 'Etched Fungal Art.' In Fungal Dot Painting, akin to pointillism where small dots unite to compose an image, fungal conidia are inoculated into agar droplets which are then deposited on a dark surface of black acrylic glass for contrast, and incubated at the desired condition to allow fungal growth. In 'Etched Fungal Art', an acrylic glass surface modified by etching (lathing or printmaking) is poured over with a suspension of fungal conidia in an agar-based substrate, and then incubated to permit fungal growth into the etched channels. Both art forms allow for temporal dynamism, insofar as being composed of living fungal organisms they change and evolve over time.

Netherzone (talk) 19:59, 19 December 2023 (UTC)


 * I added a short summary for the "Yeasts, moulds and lichen" section to the article, and included a notable artist Ernst Haeckel. I think the article as it was originally written included too many non-notable artists. That is fine for an academic journal article, book or exhibition, but for the purposes of the encyclopedia, it may be best for our readership to include wiki-notable artists (with their own WP article) instead of non-wiki-notables since this is a broad topic article. Netherzone (talk) 14:07, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * That's now cut too short, in my opinion. Regarding wiki-notable artists, I'd leave at least the examples with John Wyndham, Stephen King, Maja Smrekar, and Anna Dumitriu.
 * The example on 'Fungal Dot Painting' and 'Etched Fungal Art' could probably stay too, as it cites primary literature (https://doi.org/10.3390/jof7121018) and is (IMHO) very relevant for the field of mould in art.
 * Also the mold-subpage Mold could be transcluded or at least linked to (fully aware that that subpage is yet not perfect, too).
 * If you could spare a minute to revert these edits, that would be very much appreciated.
 * Thanks CorradoNai (talk) 03:16, 21 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I added Anna Dumitriu, as she is a wikinotable bioartist which is a nice counter-point to the historical artist Haeckel. A citation is needed in an independent published source that describes Haeckel's illustrations of lichen, fungi or yeasts. Do you have one? That would be helpful (and necessary) for article improvement. Thanks and best, Netherzone (talk) 17:26, 21 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I've also added Sam Taylor-Johnson (a.k.a. Sam Taylor-Wood) to that summary section, a very well known artist whose work Still Life, uses mold in the process of making the video. The summary section now has three artists who represent lichens (Haeckel), yeast (Dumitriu) and mold (Taylor-Johnson). Netherzone (talk) 17:45, 21 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks, this makes sense. The name of Haeckel's illustration should do... File:Haeckel Lichenes.jpg CorradoNai (talk) 08:04, 22 December 2023 (UTC)