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What if our plants

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could sense the toxicity
levels in the soil

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and express that toxicity
through the color of its leaves?

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What if those plants could also
remove those toxins from the soil?

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Instead, what if those plants

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grew their own packaging,

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or were designed to only be harvested

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by their owners' own patented machines?

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What happens when biological design

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is driven by the motivations
of mass-produced commodities?

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What kind of world would that be?

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My name is Ani, and I'm a designer
and researcher at MIT Media Lab,

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where I'm part of a relatively new
and unique group called Design Fiction,

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where we're wedged somewhere
between science fiction and science fact.

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And at MIT, I am lucky enough
to rub shoulders with scientists

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studying all kinds of cutting edge fields

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like synthetic neurobiology,

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artificial intelligence, artificial life

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and everything in between.

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And across campus,
there's truly brilliant scientists

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asking questions like,
"How can I make the world a better place?"

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And part of what my group
likes to ask is, "What is better?"

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What is better for you, for me,

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for a white woman, a gay man,

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a veteran, a child with a prosthetic?

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Technology is never neutral.

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It frames a reality

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and reflects a context.

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Can you imagine what it would say
about the work-life balance at your office

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if these were standard issue
on the first day?

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(Laughter)

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I believe it's the role
of artists and designers

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to raise critical questions.

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Art is how you can see
and feel the future,

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and today is an exciting
time to be a designer,

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for all the new tools becoming accessible.

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For instance, synthetic biology

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seeks to write biology
as a design problem.

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And through these developments,

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my lab asks, what are the roles
and responsibilities

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of an artist, designer,
scientist, or businessman?

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What are the implications

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of synthetic biology, genetic engineering,

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and how are they shaping our notions
of what it means to be a human?

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What are the implications of this
on society, on evolution

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and what are the stakes in this game?

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My own speculative design research
at the current moment

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plays with synthetic biology,

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but for more emotionally driven output.

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I'm obsessed with olfaction
as a design space,

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and this project started with this idea

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of what if you could take
a smell selfie, a smellfie?

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(Laughter)

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What if you could take
your own natural body odor

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and send it to a lover?

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Funny enough, I found that this
was a 19th century Austrian tradition,

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where couples in courtship
would keep a slice of apple

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crammed under their armpit during dances,

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and at the end of the evening,

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the girl would give the guy
she most fancied her used fruit,

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and if the feeling was mutual,

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he would wolf down that stinky apple.

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(Laughter)

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Famously, Napoleon wrote
many love letters to Josephine,

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but perhaps amongst the most memorable
is this brief and urgent note:

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"Home in three days. Don't bathe."

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(Laughter)

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Both Napoleon and Josephine
adored violets.

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Josephine wore violet-scented perfume,

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carried violets on their wedding day,

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and Napoleon sent her a bouquet of violets

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every year on their anniversary.

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When Josephine passed away,

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he planted violets at her grave,

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and just before his exile,

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he went back to that tomb site,

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picked some of those flowers,
entombed them in a locket

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and wore them until the day he died.

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And I found this so moving,

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I thought, could I engineer that violet
to smell just like Josephine?

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What if, for the rest of eternity,

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when you went to visit her site,

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you could smell Josephine
just as Napoleon loved her?

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Could we engineer new ways of mourning,

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new rituals for remembering?

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After all, we've engineered
transgenic crops

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to be maximized for profit,

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crops that stand up to transport,

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crops that have a long shelf life,

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crops that taste sugary sweet
but resist pests,

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sometimes at the expense
of nutritional value.

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Can we harness these same technologies
for an emotionally sensitive output?

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So currently in my lab,

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I'm researching questions like,
what makes a human smell like a human?

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And it turns out it's fairly complicated.

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Factors such as your diet,
your medications, your lifestyle

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all factor into the way you smell.

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And I found that our sweat
is mostly odorless,

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but it's our bacteria and microbiome

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that's responsible for your smells,
your mood, your identity

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and so much beyond.

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And there's all kinds
of molecules that you emit

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but which we only perceive subconsciously.

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So I've been cataloging and collecting

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bacteria from different sites of my body.

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After talking to a scientist, we thought,

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maybe the perfect concoction of Ani

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is like 10 percent collarbone,
30 percent underarm,

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40 percent bikini line and so forth,

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and occasionally
I let researchers from other labs

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take a sniff of my samples

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and it's been interesting to hear
how smell of the body

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is perceived outside
of the context of the body.

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I've gotten feedback such as,

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smells like flowers, like chicken,

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like cornflakes,

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like beef carnitas.

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(Laughter)

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At the same time, I cultivate
a set of carnivorous plants

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for their ability to emit
fleshlike odors to attract prey,

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in an attempt to kind of create
this symbiotic relationship

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between my bacteria and this organism.

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And as it so happens,
I'm at MIT and I'm in a bar,

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and I was talking to a scientist

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who happens to be a chemist
and a plant scientist,

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and I was telling him about my project,

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and he was like, "Well, this sounds
like botany for lonely women."

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(Laughter)

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Unperturbed, I said, "OK."

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I challenged him.

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"Can we engineer a plant
that can love me back?"

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And for some reason,
he was like, "Sure, why not?"

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So we started with,
can we get a plant to grow towards me

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like I was the sun?

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And so we're looking at mechanisms
in plants such as phototropism,

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which causes the plant
to grow towards the sun

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by producing hormones like auxin,

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which causes cell elongation
on the shady side.

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And right now I'm creating
a set of lipsticks

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that are infused with these chemicals

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that allow me to interact with a plant
on its own chemical signatures --

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lipsticks that cause plants
to grow where I kiss it,

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plants that blossom
where I kiss the bloom.

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And through these projects,

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I'm asking questions like,

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how do we define nature?

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How do we define nature
when we can reengineer its properties,

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and when should we do it?

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Should we do it for profit, for utility?

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Can we do it for emotional ends?

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Can biotechnology be used
to create work as moving as music?

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What are the thresholds between science

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and its ability to shape
our emotional landscape?

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It's a famous design mantra
that form follows function.

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Well, now, wedged somewhere
between science, design and art

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I get to ask,

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what if fiction informs fact?

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What kind of R&D lab would that look like

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and what kind of questions
would we ask together?

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We often look to technology as the answer,

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but as an artist and designer,

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I like to ask, but what is the question?

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Thank you.

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(Applause)