What if our plants could sense the toxicity levels in the soil and express that toxicity through the color of its leaves? What if those plants could also remove those toxins from the soil? Instead, what if those plants grew their own packaging, or were designed to only be harvested by their owners' own patented machines? What happens when biological design is driven by the motivations of mass-produced commodities? What kind of world would that be?
Šta kada bi naše biljke mogle da osete nivo toksina u zemljištu i izraze taj nivo putem boje svog lišća? Šta kada bi te biljke mogle i da uklone te toksine iz tla? A šta kada bi one mogle da proizvedu svoju ambalažu ili da se naprave tako da se beru samo patentiranim mašinama svoga vlasnika? Šta se desi kada biološki dizajn pokreće motivacija masovno proizvedenih dobara? Kakav bi to čudan svet bio?
My name is Ani, and I'm a designer and researcher at MIT Media Lab, where I'm part of a relatively new and unique group called Design Fiction, where we're wedged somewhere between science fiction and science fact. And at MIT, I am lucky enough to rub shoulders with scientists studying all kinds of cutting edge fields like synthetic neurobiology, artificial intelligence, artificial life and everything in between. And across campus, there's truly brilliant scientists asking questions like, "How can I make the world a better place?" And part of what my group likes to ask is, "What is better?" What is better for you, for me, for a white woman, a gay man, a veteran, a child with a prosthetic? Technology is never neutral. It frames a reality and reflects a context. Can you imagine what it would say about the work-life balance at your office if these were standard issue on the first day?
Zovem se Ani i ja sam dizajnerka i istraživač u medijskoj laboratoriji MIT, gde sam deo nove i jedinstvene grupe koja se zove Fikcija dizajna, a tu se bavimo nečim što je između naučne fantastike i činjenica. Na MIT-u imam dovoljno sreće da radim sa naučnicima koji izučavaju svakakve najnovije oblasti, poput sintetičke neurobiologije, veštačke inteligencije, veštačkog života i svega ostalog sličnog tome. Širom kampusa, tu su zaista briljantni naučnici koji postavljaju pitanja poput onoga kako svet načiniti boljim mestom. Deo onoga što moja grupa voli da pita je to: "Šta je bolje?" Šta je bolje za vas, za mene, za belkinju, gej muškarca, veterana, dete sa prostetičkim udom? Tehnologija nikad nije neutralna. Ona oblikuje stvarnost i održava kontekst. Možete li zamisliti šta bi ovo reklo o balansu života i posla na vašem poslu kada bi vam od prvog dana davali ovo?
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
I believe it's the role of artists and designers to raise critical questions. Art is how you can see and feel the future, and today is an exciting time to be a designer, for all the new tools becoming accessible. For instance, synthetic biology seeks to write biology as a design problem. And through these developments, my lab asks, what are the roles and responsibilities of an artist, designer, scientist or businessman? What are the implications of synthetic biology, genetic engineering, and how are they shaping our notions of what it means to be a human? What are the implications of this on society, on evolution and what are the stakes in this game?
Verujem da je uloga umetnika i inženjera da postavljaju krucijalna pitanja. Umetnost je ono kako vidite i osećate budućnost, a danas je uzbudljivo vreme da se bude dizajner, uz sve nove alate koji postaju dostupni. Na primer, sintetička biologija pokušava da predstavi biologiju kao problem dizajna. Kroz ove razvoje, u mojoj laboratoriji se pitamo koje su uloge i odgovornosti umetnika, dizajnera, naučnika ili poslovnog čoveka? Koje su implikacije sintetičke biologije, genetskog inženjeringa i kako oni oblikuju naš pojam toga šta znači biti čovek? Koje su implikacije ovoga na društvo, na evoluciju i kakvi su sve ulozi u igri?
My own speculative design research at the current moment plays with synthetic biology, but for more emotionally driven output. I'm obsessed with olfaction as a design space, and this project started with this idea of what if you could take a smell selfie, a smelfie?
Moje sopstveno spekulativno istraživanje o dizajnu trenutno tiče se sintetičke biologije, ali za rezultate koji su više vođeni emocijama. Opsednuta sam mirisom kao prostorom za dizajn, i ovaj proces je započeo idejom, šta kada biste mogli da napravite selfi mirisa, smelfi?
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
What if you could take your own natural body odor and send it to a lover? Funny enough, I found that this was a 19th century Austrian tradition, where couples in courtship would keep a slice of apple crammed under their armpit during dances, and at the end of the evening, the girl would give the guy she most fancied her used fruit, and if the feeling was mutual, he would wolf down that stinky apple.
Šta kada biste mogli da snimite miris sopstvenog tela i pošaljete ga partneru? Zanimljivo je da sam otkrila da je ovo bila tradicija u Austriji u 19. veku kada su parovi kao deo udvaranja čuvali komadić jabuke ispod pazuha tokom plesa, i na kraju večeri, devojka bi voćku dala momku koji joj se najviše dopao, i ukoliko bi to bilo obostrano, on bi pojeo tu smrdjivu jabuku.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Famously, Napoleon wrote many love letters to Josephine, but perhaps amongst the most memorable is this brief and urgent note: "Home in three days. Don't bathe."
Poznato je da je Napoleon napisao Žozefini mnogo ljubavnih pisama, ali možda najčuvenija je njegova kratka i hitna poruka: "Kući za tri dana. Ne kupaj se."
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Both Napoleon and Josephine adored violets. Josephine wore violet-scented perfume, carried violets on their wedding day, and Napoleon sent her a bouquet of violets every year on their anniversary. When Josephine passed away, he planted violets at her grave, and just before his exile, he went back to that tomb site, picked some of those flowers, entombed them in a locket and wore them until the day he died.
I Napoleon i Žozefina obožavali su ljubičice. Žozefina je nosila parfem od ljubičica, na dan svadbe je nosila ljubičice i Napoleon joj je slao buket ljubičica svake godine na njihovu godišnjicu. Kada je Žozefina preminula, na njenom grobu posadio je ljubičice, i tik pre nego što je izgnan, vratio se na grobno mesto i ubrao nešto od tog cveća, zatvorio ga u medaljon i nosio sa sobom do svoje smrti.
And I found this so moving, I thought, could I engineer that violet to smell just like Josephine? What if, for the rest of eternity, when you went to visit her site, you could smell Josephine just as Napoleon loved her? Could we engineer new ways of mourning, new rituals for remembering? After all, we've engineered transgenic crops to be maximized for profit, crops that stand up to transport, crops that have a long shelf life, crops that taste sugary sweet but resist pests, sometimes at the expense of nutritional value. Can we harness these same technologies for an emotionally sensitive output?
Ovo me je tako dirnulo, pomislila sam, mogu li da napravim ljubičicu koja bi mirisala kao Žozefina? Šta kada bi, do kraja večnosti, svaki put kada odete na njen grob, mogli da pomirišete Žozefinu onakvu kakvu je Napoelon voleo? Da li bismo mogli da osmislimo nove načine za žaljenje, nove rituale prisećanja? Ipak smo napravili transgenske useve, koji su osmišljeni zbog veće zarade, useve koji odolevaju transportu, useve koji imaju dug životni vek, useve koji su slatkog ukusa ali odolevaju štetočinama, ponekad po cenu hranljive vrednosti. Možemo li iskoristiti iste tehnologije za emotivno osetljive rezultate?
So currently in my lab, I'm researching questions like, what makes a human smell like a human? And it turns out it's fairly complicated. Factors such as your diet, your medications, your lifestyle all factor into the way you smell. And I found that our sweat is mostly odorless, but it's our bacteria and microbiome that's responsible for your smells, your mood, your identity and so much beyond. And there's all kinds of molecules that you emit but which we only perceive subconsciously.
Trenutno u mojoj laboratoriji izučavam pitanja poput tog zbog čega čovek miriše kao čovek? Ispostavlja se da je to prilično složeno. Faktori poput ishrane, lekova, stila života, sve utiče na to kako mirišete. Otkrila sam da je znoj većinom bez mirisa, ali naše bakterije i mikrobiom su odgovorni za vaš miris, raspoloženje, identitet i mnogo više toga. Postoje razni molekuli koje ispuštate, a koje primetimo samo podsvesno.
So I've been cataloging and collecting bacteria from different sites of my body. After talking to a scientist, we thought, maybe the perfect concoction of Ani is like 10 percent collarbone, 30 percent underarm, 40 percent bikini line and so forth, and occasionally I let researchers from other labs take a sniff of my samples. And it's been interesting to hear how smell of the body is perceived outside of the context of the body. I've gotten feedback such as, smells like flowers, like chicken, like cornflakes, like beef carnitas.
Beležila sam i skupljala bakterije sa raznih mesta na svom telu. Nakon razgovora s naučnikom, pomislili smo možda bi savršena mešavina Ani bila 10% ključne kosti, 30% pazuha, 40% bikini zone i tako dalje, i ponekad bih dala istraživačima iz drugih laboratorija da pomirišu moje uzorke. Zanimljivo je čuti kako miris tela ljudi osete van konteksta tela. Dobila sam odgovore poput: miriše kao cveće, kao piletina, kao kornfleks, kao goveđe meso.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
At the same time, I cultivate a set of carnivorous plants for their ability to emit fleshlike odors to attract prey, in an attempt to kind of create this symbiotic relationship between my bacteria and this organism. And as it so happens, I'm at MIT and I'm in a bar, and I was talking to a scientist who happens to be a chemist and a plant scientist, and I was telling him about my project, and he was like, "Well, this sounds like botany for lonely women."
U isto vreme, uzgajam biljke mesožderke, zbog njihove sposobnosti da ispuštaju mirise nalik na meso da bi privukle plen, kako bi pokušala da stvorim nešto nalik na simbiozu između mojih bakterija i ovog organizma. I tako, na MIT-u sam i u kafiću i pričam sa naučnikom koji je slučajno hemičar i botaničar i pričam mu o svom projektu a on kaže: "Pa to zvuči kao botanika za usamljene žene."
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Unperturbed, I said, "OK." I challenged him. "Can we engineer a plant that can love me back?" And for some reason, he was like, "Sure, why not?"
Nezabrinuta, kažem: "U redu." Izazvala sam ga. "Možemo li da napravimo biljku koja će mi uzvratiti ljubav?" Iz nekog razloga rekao je: "Naravno, zašto da ne?"
So we started with, can we get a plant to grow towards me like I was the sun? And so we're looking at mechanisms in plants such as phototropism, which causes the plant to grow towards the sun by producing hormones like auxin, which causes cell elongation on the shady side. And right now I'm creating a set of lipsticks that are infused with these chemicals that allow me to interact with a plant on its own chemical signatures -- lipsticks that cause plants to grow where I kiss it, plants that blossom where I kiss the bloom.
Počeli smo sa tim, da li možemo da nateramo biljku da raste ka meni kao da sam ja sunce? Izučavamo mehanizme u biljkama poput fototropizma, koji tera biljke da rastu ka suncu tako što proizvodi hormone poput auksina zbog koga ćelije rastu duže na strani biljke gde je senka. Trenutno pravim niz karmina koji su prožeti ovim hemikalijama koje mi pružaju mogućnost da sa biljkom komuniciram kroz njene hemijske signale - karmini od kojih biljke rastu tamo gde ih ja poljubim, biljke koje cvetaju tamo gde poljubim cvet.
And through these projects, I'm asking questions like, how do we define nature? How do we define nature when we can reengineer its properties, and when should we do it? Should we do it for profit, for utility? Can we do it for emotional ends? Can biotechnology be used to create work as moving as music? What are the thresholds between science and its ability to shape our emotional landscape?
Kroz ove projekte, postavljam pitanja poput toga kako da definišemo prirodu. Kako da definišemo prirodu kada joj promenimo svojstva naukom, i kada treba to da radimo? Da li da to radimo zbog zarade, ili praktične koristi? Zarad emotivne koristi? Može li se biotehnologija koristiti za stvaranje dela dirljivih poput muzike? Koje su granice između nauke i njene mogućnosti da oblikuje naš emotivni pejzaž?
It's a famous design mantra that form follows function. Well, now, wedged somewhere between science, design and art I get to ask, what if fiction informs fact? What kind of R&D lab would that look like and what kind of questions would we ask together?
Čuvena je mantra dizajna da forma prati funkciju. Sada, uglavljena negde između nauke, dizajna i umetnosti, pitam se, šta ako fikcija informiše činjenice? Kakva bi to laboratorija bila i kakva bismo pitanja zajedno postavljali?
We often look to technology as the answer, but as an artist and designer, I like to ask, but what is the question?
Često u tehnologiji tražimo odgovor, ali kao umetnica i dizajnerka, volim da se zapitam: ali šta je pitanje?
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)