My talk "Synthetic Biology for the Senses" is live on TED.com

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https://www.ted.com/talks/ani_liu_smelfies_and_other_experiments_in_synthetic_biology/up-next

What if you could take a smell selfie, a smelfie? What if you had a lipstick that caused plants to grow where you kiss? Ani Liu explores the intersection of technology and sensory perception, and her work is wedged somewhere between science, design and art.

The talk was also featured on the front page of Ted.com today!

I am pleased to announce that I will be participating in a group show titled Body Politic.

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OPEN is pleased to premiere Body Politic, a group show featuring works by eleven artists from five countries including Ani Liu, Ayodamola Okunseinde, Azra Aksamija, Emmeline Franklin, Brittany Cohen, Lauren McCarthy, Manisha Mohan, Pedro Oliveira, Sophia Brueckner, Wiena Lin, and Xuedi Chen. Body Politic is guest curated by Laura Zittrain.

The artists in Body Politic deploy wearable objects to resist social power structures. Sculptures, dresses, devices, and a spacesuit depict alternate visions of a tech-enabled, inclusive future. These works respond to the experiences of individuals seeking a place in a post-hope America struggling with sexism, racism, and xenophobia.

Consisting of speculative objects designed for the body, this collection makes tangible the artists’ latent anxieties about safety and inclusion. Some works are intended as a cautionary tale, designed to provoke debate; the hat by McCarthy that pokes the wearer should they stop smiling and the interstellar communication device for people of color by Okunseinde and Lin. Others are working prototypes that contend with a future which has already arrived; the “secure” dress by Cohen and Franklin that only unfastens itself with the wearer’s fingerprint, or the letterman jackets made out of “cultural fabric” by Aksamija, and the portable Faraday cage by Chen and Oliveira.

These objects fall somewhere between the everyday and the uncanny. They're familiar enough to accept at first glance: the lipstick by Liu, the amulet by Brueckner, the bra by Mohan. But something is unsettling: the lipstick attracts plants, the amulet harvests attention, and the bra releases a noxious odor.

If the oppressed co-opted the production style of technology solutionism, these would be the wearables we’d get. Yet contemplated as serious products, they are absurd partial solutions. They show us that without civic discourse about the technology we want and need, gadget-making in isolation only further entrenches the status quo.

In an age of political authoritarianism, runaway tech, and expanding intersectional diversity, the works in Body Politic make clear the need to focus on social justice when creating new technologies.

Guest curator Laura Zittrain works as a stylist and curator at the intersection of fashion and technology. Previously she was the Harvard University Wheatland Curatorial Fellow in the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments where she researched and developed the permanent exhibit for 1944's Mark-1, the world's first programmable computer. While at Harvard, Zittrain contributed to various exhibits, including a retrospective on the Rorschach ink blots, chatbots and the history of artificial intelligence, and science pedagogy during the Cold War. Zittrain holds a A.M. in the History of Science from Harvard University, B.S. from Georgetown University, and a certificate in personal styling from The School of Style.

Installation at Museum of Fine Arts

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Boston Museum of Fine Arts  I will be showing a new art installation at the mfaNOW event December 9-10: furniture that turns secrets into haptic vibrations you can feel in your bones.   Come check it out if you are in Boston!   Project done in collaboration with my lovely friends and fellow MIT Media Labbers Gerson Dublon, Nicole L'huillier,  Adam Horowitz, and Xin Li.

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Speak the Small Truths

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Speak the Small Truths:  Pleased to be speaking at Speak the Small Truths, presented by Food + Future CoLab in conjunction with IDEO and MIT Media Lab.  I will be talking about the emotional affordances of synthetic biology as it relates to olfaction.

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The Food + Future Salon Series is designed to provoke dialogue and inspire action. Salons should challenge your thinking and raise lots of small “t” truths that you may not have previously considered. They are an opportunity to confront each other’s diverse perspectives in respectful and generative ways. They are simultaneously big and intimate: large enough to feel the energy of the crowd around you, yet small enough to be approachable and welcoming. Food + Future quietly held its first Salon at MIT Media Lab in November 2016.

MIT Hacking Arts

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MIT Hacking Arts: I am organizing a panel with Pip Mothersill on Biotech and Art.  Speakers include Joe Davis esteemed bioartist, David Kong of of the community BioHacking lab EMW, Christina Agapakis of GinkoBioworks, Julie Legault of Amino, and Dr. Natalie Kuldell, author of BioBuilders.

Boston Museum of Fine Arts: mfaNOW

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Boston Museum of Fine Arts: mfaNOW

Below are images from an event and exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, featuring an exploration of the uncanny through a robotic cat cafe.   Throughout the night, waitresses from the future served a menu full of options like switches, pacer motors, programmable voice boxes and childhood toys, to reconstruct memories into new futures.

Attendees deconstructed and reconstructed the robots, and then were encouraged to make and write about their future histories through their animatronic creations.   This exhibit was a collaboration with my wonderful and talented friends Adam Horowitz, Pip Mothersill, Nicole L'Huillier, and Thomas Sanchez. 

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Asian Art Museum Takeover

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Sharing a write up about my involvement at the Asian Art Museum Takeover as a Researcher in Residence at IDEO! (click image above)

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Asian Art Museum Takeover:  Excited to present an installation I have been building at IDEO for the Takeover event at the Asian Art Museum spearheaded by Anthony Myint and Karen Liebowitz.  The installation highlights the impact of food on climate change.  Edit: Sharing some images from the event below!

TEDX at MoMa- April 22nd

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 TEDx with Estee Lauder at MoMa: Very excited to be giving a TEDx with Estee Lauder at MoMa.  I will be speaking about speculative design, olfaction, and the emotional affordances of biotechnology.  Edit: some photos from the event posted below!

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