Tiare Ribeaux and Ruth Schmidt

The recent fires in Paradise, California made it necessary for populations in nearby cities to wear N95 filter masks for over two weeks. During this time, one’s sense of smell and sense of well being was extremely dampened. Microbial Scents and Olfactory Prosthesis for the Future imagines new methods of filtration and wearable microbial technology that could improve air quality in collaboration with living organisms, and create customizable genetically engineered scents. Current research has already been done around genetically engineered yeast that can synthesize molecules called lactones related to the aromas of fruits and flowers.

Tiare Ribeaux and Ruth Schmidt will attempt to gather and record smells of microbes from different soil habitats around different places near the laboratory. In addition, they will work to create custom communities of microbes to create certain scents to evoke sensory experiences, or to create entirely new scents. As a physical outcome, they will create custom scents encased in vials as living perfumes as well as in 3D printed custom wearable Olfactory Prostheses.These unique custom 3D wearables will be speculative living filtration masks and prosthesis for the future-something a person could wear on their face to go under their nose, or a person could wear around their neck or their upper arm that could improve air quality for both themselves, the environment, and non-human species.

https://www.tiareribeaux.com/

Tiare Ribeaux is a new media and interdisciplinary Hawaiian-American artist, filmmaker and curator based in the Bay Area. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of ​B4BEL4B gallery​,Co-Founder of ​REFRESH Art, Science, and Technology​; and heads the Art-Science program atCounter Culture Labs​. As an interdisciplinary artist, her work explores the entanglements of human technologies, biology and infrastructures with mythologies, the environment, and microbial/non-human species. She is interested in living systems, deep/dark/media ecology, rhizomatic networks, speculative futures, multi-species ontologies, and collaborative entanglements. Both B4BEL4B Gallery and REFRESH Art, Science and Technology are organizations andplatforms for presenting new media and transdisciplinary work by feminist, queer, decolonial, anti-racist, and anti-ableist artists concerned with our technological and political moment. Bothplatforms prioritize female-identifying, gender non-conforming, queer, and POC artists working in new media, technology, and science.

Ruth Schmidt is a microbial ecologist who is working on finding ​microbial solutions to combat climate change​. The basis of her research lies in studying how microbes in the soil interact and communicate with each other and their plant host via volatiles or smells. Ultimately, her research aims to find solutions for anthropogenic issues, such as ​climate change induced drought in agriculture​. Apart from doing research, Ruth is passionate about bringing ​arts and science together​ and about building a more inclusive and accessible scientific community for which she works as a board member of the non-profit organization ​500 women scientists​, as well as a member of the 500 Women Scientists Montreal Pod, and as an instructor of the Montreal based community lab ​Bricobio​.

The mission of 500 women scientists is to serve society by making science open, inclusive, and accessible. The Montreal local pod is where female, female-identifying, and gender queer scientists from the region can meet regularly and develop a support network in an inclusive, safe and bilingual space. Bricobio is a community lab that aims to provide boundless scientific explorations by organizing workshops and training sessions to make biotechnology accessible to everyone.