Zen buddhist teachings describe "mu" as nothing, emptiness, non-being, or even pure human awareness prior to knowledge and experience. It also refers to a lost continent in the midst of the Pacific Ocean, and a fictional place. Mu.Shroom.City asks the audience to think about the invisible social fabric that connects us but is often as invisible as the mycelium that runs under the earth's surface, creating a network of cells that only becomes apparent with the fruiting of mushrooms.

Mu.shroom.city invited participants to establish connections across the urban expanse of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso by either caring for living mushroom vessels in strategic locations, along train lines, within historic buildings and elsewhere, or by creating their own mushroom, installing it onsite and documenting its reception. This network of relationships was complemented by a counterpart installation in the Centennial Museum: a living map of the region made from mycelium that sporadically grew mushrooms as new connections were made across town. Community collaborators both narrated the lives of their mushroom vessels on the Mu.Shroom.City blog, and they harvested their mushrooms for a public tasting prepared by Robert Ardovino at the Centennial Museum.

Mu.shroom.city was a commissioned satellite project of ISEA International, 2012.