Resurrecting the Scent of Extinct Flowers

Christina Agapakis of Ginkgo Bioworks, along with Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and Sissel Tolaas recently installed an exhibition entitled Resurrecting the Sublime at the St. Etienne Design Biennial. Visitors of the two featured installments can smell the scent of two extinct flowers, Hibiscadelphus wilderianus (once indigenous to Hawaii) and Orbexilum stipulatum (once flourished in Kentucky)! Ginkgo Bioworks applied their microbial technology to generate the scent from the extinct plants. The exhibition can also be viewed at the Centre Pompidou and the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum.

Resurrecting the Sublime at Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne. Left: Hibiscadelphus wilderianus Rock (vitrine with smell diffusion, lava boulders, animation), right: Orbexilum stipulatum (vitrine with smell diffusion, limestone boulders, animation) March 2019.