Strange bacterial and mycelial fibres entangled themselves in our pop up lab for Art Beat 2025.
Part of our Growing Material Cultures project and supported via our Digital Impact Programme with Creative Northland, the lab was a celebration of collaboration, unusual intelligences and the emerging world of new fibres.
During the day Professor Frances Joseph and Claudine Naselu talked through their upcoming research project and consulted with the community on its structure and form, while also inviting individuals to express interest in participating.
Kim Newall displayed his mad merch, generated in collaboration with AI and emerging directly out of research into the intersection of artificial and creative intelligence.
You can buy some of this merch at our Etsy store – or by contacting us directly if you live in NZ.
Throughout the day we had talks, demos and one to one coaching sessions with people interested in bio materials and AI. It was our last lab in that space, a few days later we packed up – onwards and upwards to our next adventure.
We had continually occupied that space in The Strand Arcade for 3 years and were happy that a business could more permanently occupy the space from that point forward.
More Strange Intelligences
This particular experience was supported by Creative Northland as part of the Strange Intelligences Lab





























