X

Mushroom Death Suit, For All Your Post-Burial Fungal Needs


April 14, 2014 | Sophie Weiner

If you’ve ever watched Planet Earth from end to end (as you should), there’s one particularly haunting time-lapse sequence which is burned into your memory: Cordyceps. Watch as insects are infected with a fungus that makes them go insane, kills them and then grows out of their dead bodies, like a surrealist horror remake of A Bug’s Life.

Good news! Now you too can ensure that upon your death, mushrooms of all kinds will engulf your lifeless form.

Artist and MIT researcher Jae Rhim Lee has invented a practical and stylish way to make this happen. Her “Mushroom Death Suit” will be stocked with all kinds of spores. When combined with the natural embalming liquid that will replace your bodily fluids, it activates a fungal frenzy that will both decompose and eliminate the toxins you may have collected over the course of your life. Her suit will leave your body to reunite with nature minus the ecologically harmful effects of traditional caskets and embalming practices. Everyone wins.

According to Lee, several people have already volunteered to donate their bodies to the cause, and there’s still time to sign up! And if you’re looking for the complete zero-impact funeral package, we’d recommend taking a hybrid hearse to the field where you will lay in your mushroom suit for eternity.