Susana Soares: Using Bees as a Medical Device

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Pecha Kucha Daily reports on a very unique project that was presented at the PechaKucha night in Trieste late last year. Portuguese designer Susana Soares uses bees exceptional odor perception as part of a beautiful and strange medical sensing device. It’s a brilliant human-nature collaboration that takes advantage of an untapped naturally occurring phenomenon.

They explain:

Have you ever heard that bees have a phenomenal odor perception? Susana Soares explained to the public of PKN Trieste how the bees can be trained within minutes using Pavlov’s reflex to target a specific odour, and their range of detection includes pheromones, toxins, and disease diagnosis. “BEE’S PROJECT” explores how we might co-habit with natural biological systems and use their potential to increase our perceptive abilities. We have always co-existed with these systems, but their potential was unknown. Susana’s work was also exhibited in “Design and the Elastic Mind” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, curated by Paola Antonelli, before becoming part of the permanent collection of the museum.

Pecha Kucha Daily: “Susana Soares”