RESURRECTING THE SUBLIME in Popular Mechanics:
“Where do science and philosophy meet? Can our technological impact on the natural world have positive outcomes for biological systems? What does the future look like with genetic engineering? How about without it? Is nature natural anymore? Is it time to update old definitions of sustainability to include premeditated, scalable organism design?
These questions are addressed in a series of immersive installations designed by the Ginkgo Bioworks team in collaboration with artist Dr. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and smell researcher Sissal Tolaas. “Resurrecting the Sublime” can be viewed—and smelled—this spring at fine art museums around the world. Each of the exhibits grapples, with the loss of whole biological systems, now reduced to bioengineered scents, that implicitly require the presence of a creature (in this case the visitor) to smell them.
“In contrast to a natural history museum,” explains the artist statement, “the human becomes the specimen on view.” It’s like the high art form of Gotcha! But more meaningfully, it’s learning from nature to build a brave new kind of nature altogether.”
Read more at https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a27155735/smell-flower-extinct/.