Ringailė Demšytė (born 1998) is a Lithuanian visual artist who has been fascinated by mushrooms since a young age. Her parents affectionately called her “little mushroom" and her childhood was filled with fairytales and drawings centered around them. Recently, as Ringailė paid tribute to her childhood and continued to explore the world of fungi through research-based projects, fungi became an inseparable part of her artistic practice. As someone passionate about visual communication, Ringailė strives to challenge her artistic practice by questioning the boundaries between real and fictitious, using digital tools and printed mediums. In addition, she explores (fictional) languages and alternative sounds through visual experimentation. In 2023, Demšytė completed her BA in Design at Willem de Kooning Academy with Honors and her work has been shown / acquired throughout the Netherlands and abroad (Lisbon, PT; New York, US; Warsaw, PL).

Invisible Fungi  
2023

In 2023, “Invisible Fungi” won two awards: Best Immersive Application and the Most Impactful project during the Immersive Tech Week in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. 

“Invisible Fungi” by Ringailė Demšytė is a VR experience that helps to showcase fungi’s integral, yet invisible, role in our lives in times of ecological degradation. The research builds on the artist's previous “Visual Fungi Language” project, which examines a possible, speculative visual language of fungi based on an interpretation of their electrical spiking activity as a means of “facilitating” communication between humans and nonhumans. The project aims to explore the use of different media, such as sound, raw organic materials, and VR, to enable people to experience the unseen world of fungi and foster a greater sense of empathy towards their natural environment. This immersive experience focuses on creating knowledge through feeling by visualising how fungi break down complex organic compounds in a poetic, nearly abstract way. Virtual reality becomes a tool of choice to create a sensitivity around the invisible role of fungi for the city residents who lost touch with nature.

Most fungi operate discreetly, largely unseen by the human eye, as does their transformative work. It typically takes approximately a century for fungi to break down deceased organic matter, such as a tree log. The intricate process of decomposition, executed by fungi, remains invisible to the naked eye. In light of this, the artist has crafted a virtual reality (VR) experience to speed up and encapsulate this prolonged process into a concise two-and-a-half-minute narrative. Through this artistic attempt, the intention is to draw attention to the often-overlooked and imperceptible role that fungi play in nature, emphasising their invisible yet vital contribution to the ecosystem.