Synopsis
This lavishly-illustrated companion to the feature documentary The Creeping Garden is a layperson's entry point into the strangely fascinating world of myxomycetes, or plasmodial slime moulds.
Neither animal, plant nor fungi, these alien-looking single-celled organisms are all around us in the natural world, shifting in form throughout distinct phases in their life cycle, for the most part invisible to the naked eye, but strangely beautiful in their foraging or reproductive stages. They creep around forests and grasslands across the globe almost imperceptibly, with an agency all of their own that some have described as intelligent.
Overlooked for years by natural historians and the general public at large, only recently have small groups of scientists, artists and visionaries begun to find within their intriguing behavioural patterns extraordinary metaphors that seem to belong to the world of science fiction, inspiring practical applications such as powerful computing devices, transport network designs, robot controllers and even music...
The Creeping Garden takes a closer look at this mysterious life form and the diverse and curious array of research it has inspired. Providing an insight into the modus operandi of the film's makers and the perceptual world of the organism, it brings the reader into a unique and irrational encounter in which time and space are magnified and intelligence redefined.
About the Authors
Co-director of The Creeping Garden documentary (with Tim Grabham), Jasper Sharp is an author, filmmaker, critic and curator. Internationally regarded for his work on Japanese cinema, he co-founded the Midnight Eye website. His books include The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film, Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema, and Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema. As well as a keen interest in mycology, his interests include the history of production & exhibition technologies, and has a PhD in 'Japanese Widescreen Cinema: Commerce, Technology and Aesthetics'.
Tim Grabham is a filmmaker, visual artist & animator. His background of music performance recording & composition is instrumental in the approach, subject matter and audio aesthetics of his work. After 10 years of live visual and analogue projection installations across Europe, he established the independent studio 'cinema iloobia' www.iloobia.com in 2003. As well as directing music videos and editing documentaries including Bassweight (2010), the award-winning Soka Afrika (2011) and The Fade (2013), he has made KanZeOn (2011), a sensory exploration of sound in Japan co-directed Neil Cantwell.
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