Sowing the Seeds of the Pollination Academy: Exploring Mycelic Pedagogies in the Anthropocene

How do you lead the way into a culture of re/generative education in the Anthropocene? The setting and the social conditions of the educational programme are but two out of many factors. As we leave the strangest year in decades, it has been hard not to point at depression as a third factor, which was the point of departure for the practical experiment behind this chapter. By inviting residents in a dorm in Copenhagen to a mapping and learning process, the authors would test the idea that the meticulous act of mapping could mitigate the effects of a culture of depression. However, depression does not travel alone, and the experiences from the first months of the experiment suggest that one should not underestimate a ‘critical zone’ perspective. Such a perspective directs us towards the importance of tension and pressure and a broader discourse of mitigating or regenerative action as more decisive factors. It would call for new ‘mycelic’ and tangential organisational orders of generation as perhaps more vital supports than the repairing/controlling act of mapping.