Sense/Make: Lab—Monsters & Microbes, Tools for Healing

What tools do we have to investigate the invisible forces that both fray and reweave the webs of our ecological relations? How do practical bioremediation skills support the larger project of cultural remediation? How can we understand our stories as inseparable from the residue of monstrous legacies? Join us for Lab—Microbes & Monsters, Tools for Healing, the final part of the three-part interdisciplinary series Sense/Make, in which we explore how ecological remediation and creative practice can bolster one another. No previous workshop participation is necessary.

We’ll begin with a laboratory-based investigation led by the Centre for Applied Ecological Remediation (CAER) at their new space in DTLA! Using guided microscopy, we will visualize soil contamination and the microbial life working to restore soil health by studying samples taken from a post-fire remediation site in Altadena. Dr. Danielle Stevenson will discuss how fungi interact with pollutants and demonstrate how to extract spores from soil samples to cultivate microbial cultures. Then, with guidance from filmmaker and cultural practitioner Shanhuan Manton, we’ll explore technologies for cultural healing such as collective storytelling, mythology, and creating monster narratives. Shanhuan will lead us in a reflection on how our relationships and ways of living have brought about pollution crises and embedded intergenerational traumas in the soil we depend on for life. Finally, through found-object assemblage, we will collectively create a sculptural manifestation of the monsters we face—and then perform a fungal inoculation to transform and biodegrade these monsters, assuaging them with acts of care.

$5 RSVP rate | $8 day-of door rate (no one turned away for lack of funds)

30-person limited capacity (advance reservation encouraged)

Drinks and refreshments provided

For accessibility accommodations and questions, please contact aqz@fathomers.org.

Bios

Danielle Stevenson is a multidisciplinary mycologist and environmental scientist advancing mycoremediation and nature-based pollution cleanup. She holds a PhD in environmental toxicology from the University of California, Riverside. As the founder and executive and scientific director of the Centre for Applied Ecological Remediation, she partners with communities, researchers, and policymakers to deploy fungal-plant systems to remediate and restore contaminated lands. Her initiatives—including Healing City Soils, DIY Fungi, and community and youth bioremediation programs—combine science, training, and cultural practice to address pollution, support climate resilience, and restore ecosystems.

Shanhuan Manton is a filmmaker and ecological artist composting storytelling technologies into regenerative rituals, experimenting interdisciplinarily with making real the worlds we yearn for through collective storytelling. They explore interspecies collaboration protocols and the aesthetics of multispecies thriving through filmmaking, experience design, and facilitating collective study. Their collaborations have woven community globally, ranging from spontaneous tea services on street corners to cinematic additions to the Alien franchise, and from their Collective Mythmaking course at School of the Alternative to stewarding LIOS Labs’ School of Ecological Imagination.

About Sense/Make

Sense/Make is an interdisciplinary workshop series exploring ecological remediation at the intersection of creative practice co-presented by the Centre for Applied Ecological Remediation (CAER), Trade School, and Fathomers. In three sessions unfolding throughout Fall 2025, participants are welcome to join one, some, or all workshops to learn the basics of bioremediation and meet a community of creative practitioners as we explore its poetic, political, and material dimensions: What stories live in the soil? What residues remain? And how might we compost harm into new forms of care? Designed for artists, scientists, musicians, land stewards, and community members, each session blends ecological fieldwork, creative process, and collective reflection. No experience necessary—just curiosity, presence, and a willingness to get your hands dirty.

October 11: Bioremediation 101— A Zine Workshop

November 8: Fieldwork— Composing Soil

December 13: Lab— Microbes & Monsters, Tools for Healing

Photo credit: Adam Armengual Slauson