TEDGlobal 2011
Jae Rhim Lee: My mushroom burial suit
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Here's a powerful provocation from artist Jae Rhim Lee. Can we commit our bodies to a cleaner, greener Earth, even after death? Naturally -- using a special burial suit seeded with pollution-gobbling mushrooms. Yes, this just might be the strangest TEDTalk you'll ever see ...
Jae Rhim Lee - Artist
Artist and TED Fellow Jae Rhim Lee re-imagines the relationships between the body and the world. Full bio
Artist and TED Fellow Jae Rhim Lee re-imagines the relationships between the body and the world. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
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So I'm here to explain
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why I'm wearing these ninja pajamas.
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And to do that, I'd like to talk first
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about environmental toxins in our bodies.
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So some of you may know
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about the chemical Bisphenol A, BPA.
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It's a material hardener and synthetic estrogen
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that's found in the lining of canned foods
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and some plastics.
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So BPA mimics the body's own hormones
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and causes neurological and reproductive problems.
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And it's everywhere.
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A recent study found BPA
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in 93 percent of people six and older.
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But it's just one chemical.
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The Center for Disease Control in the U.S.
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says we have 219 toxic pollutants in our bodies,
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and this includes preservatives, pesticides
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and heavy metals like lead and mercury.
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To me, this says three things.
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First, don't become a cannibal.
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Second, we are both responsible for and the victims of
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our own pollution.
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And third,
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our bodies are filters and storehouses
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for environmental toxins.
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So what happens to all these toxins when we die?
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The short answer is:
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They return to the environment in one way or another,
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continuing the cycle of toxicity.
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But our current funeral practices
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make the situation much worse.
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If you're cremated,
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all those toxins I mentioned are released into the atmosphere.
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And this includes 5,000 pounds of mercury
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from our dental fillings alone every year.
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And in a traditional American funeral,
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a dead body is covered with fillers and cosmetics
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to make it look alive.
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It's then pumped with toxic formaldehyde
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to slow decomposition --
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a practice which causes respiratory problems and cancer
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in funeral personnel.
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So by trying to preserve our dead bodies,
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we deny death, poison the living
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and further harm the environment.
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Green or natural burials, which don't use embalming,
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are a step in the right direction,
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but they don't address the existing toxins in our bodies.
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I think there's a better solution.
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I'm an artist,
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so I'd like to offer a modest proposal
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at the intersection
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of art, science and culture.
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The Infinity Burial Project,
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an alternative burial system
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that uses mushrooms
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to decompose and clean toxins in bodies.
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The Infinity Burial Project
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began a few years ago with a fantasy
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to create the Infinity Mushroom --
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a new hybrid mushroom
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that would decompose bodies, clean the toxins
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and deliver nutrients to plant roots,
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leaving clean compost.
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But I learned it's nearly impossible
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to create a new hybrid mushroom.
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I also learned
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that some of our tastiest mushrooms
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can clean environmental toxins in soil.
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So I thought maybe I could train an army
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of toxin-cleaning edible mushrooms
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to eat my body.
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So today, I'm collecting what I shed or slough off --
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my hair, skin and nails --
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and I'm feeding these to edible mushrooms.
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As the mushrooms grow,
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I pick the best feeders
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to become Infinity Mushrooms.
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It's a kind of imprinting and selective breeding process
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for the afterlife.
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So when I die,
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the Infinity Mushrooms will recognize my body
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and be able to eat it.
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All right, so for some of you,
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this may be really, really out there.
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(Laughter)
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Just a little.
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I realize this is not the kind of relationship
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that we usually aspire to have with our food.
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We want to eat, not be eaten by, our food.
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But as I watch the mushrooms grow
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and digest my body,
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I imagine the Infinity Mushroom
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as a symbol of a new way of thinking about death
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and the relationship between my body and the environment.
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See for me,
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cultivating the Infinity Mushroom
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is more than just scientific experimentation
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or gardening or raising a pet,
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it's a step towards accepting the fact
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that someday I will die and decay.
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It's also a step
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towards taking responsibility
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for my own burden on the planet.
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Growing a mushroom is also part of a larger practice
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of cultivating decomposing organisms
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called decompiculture,
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a concept that was developed by an entomologist,
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Timothy Myles.
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The Infinity Mushroom is a subset of decompiculture
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I'm calling body decompiculture and toxin remediation --
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the cultivation of organisms that decompose
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and clean toxins in bodies.
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And now about these ninja pajamas.
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Once it's completed,
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I plan to integrate the Infinity Mushrooms into a number of objects.
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First, a burial suit
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infused with mushroom spores,
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the Mushroom Death Suit.
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(Laughter)
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I'm wearing the second prototype
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of this burial suit.
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It's covered with a crocheted netting
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that is embedded with mushroom spores.
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The dendritic pattern you see
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mimics the growth of mushroom mycelia,
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which are the equivalent of plant roots.
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I'm also making a decompiculture kit,
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a cocktail of capsules
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that contain Infinity Mushroom spores
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and other elements
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that speed decomposition and toxin remediation.
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These capsules are embedded in a nutrient-rich jelly,
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a kind of second skin,
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which dissolves quickly
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and becomes baby food for the growing mushrooms.
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So I plan to finish the mushroom and decompiculture kit
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in the next year or two,
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and then I'd like to begin testing them,
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first with expired meat from the market
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and then with human subjects.
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And believe it or not,
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a few people have offered to donate their bodies to the project
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to be eaten by mushrooms.
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(Laughter)
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What I've learned from talking to these folks
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is that we share a common desire
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to understand and accept death
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and to minimize the impact of our death on the environment.
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I wanted to cultivate this perspective
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just like the mushrooms,
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so I formed the Decompiculture Society,
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a group of people called decompinauts
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who actively explore their postmortem options,
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seek death acceptance
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and cultivate decomposing organisms
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like the Infinity Mushroom.
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The Decompiculture Society shares a vision
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of a cultural shift,
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from our current culture of death denial and body preservation
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to one of decompiculture,
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a radical acceptance of death and decomposition.
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Accepting death means accepting
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that we are physical beings
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who are intimately connected to the environment,
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as the research on environmental toxins confirms.
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And the saying goes,
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we came from dust and will return to dust.
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And once we understand that we're connected to the environment,
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we see that the survival of our species
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depends on the survival of the planet.
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I believe this is the beginning
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of true environmental responsibility.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jae Rhim Lee - ArtistArtist and TED Fellow Jae Rhim Lee re-imagines the relationships between the body and the world.
Why you should listen
Jae Rhim Lee is a visual artist and mushroom lover. In her early work, as a grad student at MIT, she built systems that reworked basic human processes: sleeping (check out her it-just-might-work vertical bed from 2004), urinating and eating (and the relationship between the two). Now she's working on a compelling new plan for the final human process: decomposition.
Her Infinity Burial Project explores the choices we face after death, and how our choices reflect our denial or acceptance of death’s physical implications. She's been developing a new strain of fungus, the Infinity Mushroom, that feeds on and remediates the industrial toxins we store in our bodies and convert our unused bodies efficiently into nutrients. Her Infinity Burial System converts corpses into clean compost. And if this vision of life after death appeals to you, explore the resources at Lee's company, Coeio.
Jae Rhim Lee | Speaker | TED.com