Recomposition Collective
An open-source collective focused on developing tools and practices for a better world.
An open-source collective focused on developing tools and practices for a better world.
The Recomposition Collective is an open-source collective dedicated to prefiguring a radically egalitarian and democratic future through the socialization of technology, with a specific focus on biotechnology developed through observation, understanding, and mimicry of the Living World.
Our planet and species face more threats than ever before in human history:
We believe that this global trajectory is fundamentally antithetical to the flourishing of a free humanity on our planet.
In contrast to this trajectory:
Open-source means that, as a part of our approach to prefiguring the future we wish to see, all of the technology we create - be it tools, products, infrastructure, or anything else - will be released publicly, along with all the information required to recreate it, and listed on our website.
Our being a collective means that our organisation is not owned or overseen by any one specific member or set of members, but is instead collectively managed by the general membership.
Prefiguration means that, as a part of creating our desired future, our group and relations are designed to function in similar ways to how we want them to in our desired future, and, when necessary, will be changed to better reflect what is necessary for that future to function.
For instance, we are prefiguring toward our goal of a radically egalitarian and democratic future by running our organisation as a collective.
Our goal of a radically egalitarian and democratic future means that we do not believe that the world, at present, is sufficiently egalitarian or democratic, and that we want to change the world toward being that. Our global society is drastically less equal than it could and should be, and our democracies, where they exist, are simply not sufficiently democratic, nor are nearly enough of the systems and organisations in our world democratic at all.
When we say we want to socialize technology, we mean that we disagree with the present state of critical technology and information being proprietized by megacorporations and the systems of capital, and mean to do our part to combat this proprietization by using copyleft licenses which allow anyone to use our technology and no-one to proprietize it, and by distributing the technology we build freely to those who might use it.
Biotechnology is not meant in nearly such a specific sense as that term is sometimes used: by biotechnology, we mean any knowledge, technology, or technique related to or derived from the Living World, including elements such as bio-inspired design, bio-fabrication, and Social Technology.
The Living World refers to the biosphere we live in and the countless biological systems, relationships, and ecologies present within it. This idea is distinct from the traditional dualistic conception of “Nature” as an external force/presence that exists in opposition to humans/society.
In the near future, we will be and are working on:
In the mid-future, our goals are to:
Long-term, we plan on:
We currently have one main organising group across multiple cities. As we grow, we aim to split into multiple localized groups.
Our infrastructure is designed and is being set up in such a way as to be extremely easy to set up and run new instances of it with minimal effort and know-how, so that new offshoots can split as easily as possible.
We maintain a culture library: a living library of fungal cultures which we expand when able, both for our own research, but also for our members and anyone in the broader community who is interested in getting involved in mycology. In the future, we may sell cultures for a small fee to cover the cost of materials, but at the moment we provide them for free to our members and community contacts.
We also maintain a physical library of books on fungiculture, bioethics, philosophy, history of radical organising, and a variety of other related topics. This library is currently available to our local members on a lending basis.
All of our original collective projects, once completed, are open-source. When they’re ready, you can find them on our Projects page.
One of the key resources we are developing is an entirely collective-owned fungiculture lab in a dedicated space, capable of producing professional-quality results.
Having a laminar flow hood is essential for any professional-grade fungiculture lab. It allows for a level of aseptic work and quality control that a still-air box cannot match. However, premade laminar flow hoods are very expensive, so we are developing our own open-source laminar flow hood, to reduce the cost to our initial lab, to satellite labs/members, and to the broader community.
A key technology in any lab which is inoculating a large amount of substrate regularly is switching from flame-sterilising tools to using a contactless induction steriliser. Most people start by simply sterilising key tools such as scalpel blades or needles by using alcohol-or-butane-based flames. However, these methods leave a lot to be desired, as they damage the tools, preventing reuse. By switching to an electric induction-sterilising tool, we can hopefully reduce the overhead cost of our fungiculture operations while simultaneously reducing our rate of contamination. We are developing our own casing design for a simple induction steriliser.
Compacting substrate in PF-Tek jars takes longer and is messier when using one’s hands, so we created a 3D-printable tamper to make the job easier and faster.
In concert with a number of local organisations and individuals, particularly Hamilton Craft Studios, we are in the process of establishing a project to provide local alternatives to petrochemical dyes and fibres while reducing waste and removing invasive plants, by using a combination of cultivated dye plants and removed local invasive plants to create dyes and fibres for local partners and customers.
One of the key pieces of waste that we see a lot of locally is plastic. Short of major industrial plastic recycling operations, the ability to effectively recycle plastic is not available at a consumer level.
In Canada, we produce over 3 million tonnes of plastic waste, yearly. Only 9% of that plastic is even theoretically recycled, and much of the plastic that is claimed to be recycled is, in fact, not.
There have been a number of projects to develop open-source plastic-recycling machinery, most notably Precious Plastic. We aim to use these technologies to set up and run small-scale plastic recycling, the output of which we will then use to create and sell tools, devices, art, and more, to help our community and to grow the collective’s resources.
We are presently assembling parts for the basic recycling machines, such as shredders, extruders, and injection-moulding stations.
This is not currently our primary focus, as we are presently primarily focusing on our fungiculture labs and collective infrastructure so that we have the resources and space necessary for this and other projects.
We currently have several 3D printers set up for producing products and prototypes, and are working on improving them to be faster, higher-quality, and more reliable.
We are currently running in a very ad-hoc manner, particularly financially, and are in the process of transitioning to more scalable, effective, transparent, and accountable methods for collecting and managing funds.
Once that is complete, we can begin to handle a virtual storefront, accept large-scale donations, handle grants, manage other forms of income, and start to work on larger-scale projects.
This website is currently far-from-complete, and will eventually include much more information about us, our work, our partners, and the many ways for you to interact with those things.
As stated above, we are presently running in a relatively ad-hoc manner. We are in the process of compiling proper documents to describe the running of the organisation, and formalizing and streamlining our procedures, especially in regards to onboarding new members.
Presently, we are in need of:
We are primarily looking for members with experience in organising, mycology, plant propagation, forestry and arbory, 3D printing, grant/crowdfunding applications, computer programming, and geographic information systems.
In addition, we are also very open to new members who don’t have those skills, but who are looking to build them, and/or have other skills and interests which they think could be useful for our group.
We’re very invested in creating and sustaining a friendly and positive environment, and if you like what we’re doing, we’d love to talk to you!
Right now, the best ways to get in contact with us are via our email or our social media.
In the future, we intend to also have a readily-accessible onboarding form for people who are interested in joining us, but, at present, that is not fully functional.
Our email is connect@recomp.eco, and our Instagram is recompositioncollective.
