Living Posters: Slime Mold Workshop with Ringailė Demšytė

How can living organisms become part of the creative process?

Join Poster House for a hands-on workshop with Lithuanian artist Ringailė Demšytė, where participants will be introduced to the world of Physarum polycephalum, an acellular slime mold, and learn its use within experimental design, bioart, and visual research. 

Working directly with these living organisms, participants will explore how slime molds influence creative processes, cultivating a collaborative practice between human and non-human systems where attention, care, and environmental conditions shape the final result.

This workshop consists of three parts:

1. Introduction to slime molds
   A short presentation about slime molds, their behaviors and biological traits, and how they’re used within contemporary art, science, and experimental research.
2. Artistic practice and experiments
   A presentation of ongoing experiments, visual works, and typography grown with slime molds, including time-lapse recordings and research processes.
3. Growing your own slime mold typography
   Participants will learn the basics of cultivating slime molds using Petri dishes, agar, and food sources such as oats. Everyone will create their own small experiment and leave the workshop with a living organism to continue observing at home.
   

This workshop invites participants to slow down, observe, and rethink creativity as a form of coexistence with other living systems.

No prior experience needed.

Session 1: 12–1:30pm
Session 2: 3–4:30pm

Ringailė Demšytė’s work explores how design can move beyond speed, efficiency, and control—values often reinforced by capitalist production systems. Inspired by fungal thinking and more-than-human perspectives, Demšytė works with living organisms to rethink design as a relational practice. Using Petri dishes, agar, and food sources such as oats or yeast, and through daily care, observation, and time-lapse recording, Demšytė studies how organisms move, connect, and respond to different conditions. The results include time-lapse videos, experimental typography, and visual documentation created from these encounters. Through workshops and presentations, audiences are invited to observe slime molds directly and consider design as a practice of attention, learning, and coexistence with other living systems.

Accessibility Note: Masks are available free of charge at the museum. Assistive listening devices and stools are available. ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or a CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) is also available upon request. Please contact access@posterhouse.org or (914) 295-2387 to request interpretation services and to address any other accessibility needs. For other event-related questions, please contact events@posterhouse.org.