Talking Mushroom

Music festivals are a place to connect with people where they might be more relaxed, curious, and ready for a good time. By meeting people in this setting, you can capitalise on the shared cultural values it took for both of you to meet there. Here, I took inspiration from experiences like Guerilla Science's Intergalactic Travel Bureau and the Cosmic Cleaning Ladies, a local roving performance.

As with the election campaign, I used costume to be noticed and open conversations. In fact, the costume was an evolution of the one used for the election (one voter wanted to pick a fight about how much waste I was creating — so I took note and reused it!). I took three demonstrations:

• Polarised light, sunglass lenses and cellotape on a phone screen
• Internal reflection in a stream of water from a "light bong" (coincedentally shaped to evoke reference to a familiar tool)
• Fluorescence of tonic water under UV light; phosphorescence of plastic glow stars

Highlights

• People loved the costume and concept!
• Some demos required darkness, but by the evening most audiences were too incoherent to meaningfully participate.
• This was a useful small-scale, unpaid trial. But because the costume was so cumbersome, I quickly ended up dancing instead.