What is Mycologue?

Mycologue is a modern version of a mushroom identification book: an online platform to gather high-resolution models of mushroom species in 3D, including the environment in which they naturally grow. The mission is to improve accessibility to mushroom identification and education by providing an expansive, three-dimensional catalog of mushrooms, enriching the learning experience and understanding of these organisms.

In 2024, Mycologue is looking to expand the catalog to include psilocybin mushroom species and open the platform to community participation.

→ Go to Mycologue 🍄

Development phases

Previous phase (2023)

Mycologue was founded by Lionel Ringenbach, aka Ucodia, in October 2023 as part of a 2 weeks long art residency on Vancouver Island, Canada. Through this initial development phase, an online catalog containing 22 specimens from 8 different species was published. This also yielded a draft capture protocol to improve future captures and expand the platform to community participation in future development phases.

Next phase (October 2024)

On October 2024, the next phase of development of Mycologue will begin. This phase will have 3 main objectives

1. Capture 3D models of psilocybin mushroom species to add them to the existing catalog. Indoor species as a well as outdoor species growing in the Pacific Northwest will be captured to expand the catalog. This will serve a purpose of helping future identification of psilocybin species and for use as a digital clone in virtual environments.
2. Finalize the capture protocol using professional photography equipment. This will yield professional guidelines on how to capture mushroom models with a high resolution and a high standard of quality (shadowless texture, high polygon model definition, ...)
3. Expand the existing platform to community participation. After the publication of the protocol, Mycologue would be accepting submission of mushroom models from the community. The platform capabilities and licensing will be developed as part of this objective.

Next next phase (2025)

Looking into 2025, the dream for Mycologue would be to reach a scale where it could be used as a standalone field identification guide and be integrated with other popular crowdsourced conservation research platforms such as iNaturalist.

How will funds be used?

Here is a breakdown of how the initial funding round would utilized:

• Cost of photography equipment: ~4,000 CAD / ~2,900 USD
• Cost of residency/travel: ~1,500 CAD / ~1100 USD
• Cost of development: ~1,500 CAD / ~1100 USD

Who is building Mycologue?

As of August 2024, Lionel Ringenbach, aka Ucodia, is the only member creating and developing Mycologue. You can learn more about him at Ucodia's Space.