Smelling Species

Programme

Elephant smells - Frank Bloem Did you know that a young male elephant smells a bit like banana? Frank Bloem will talk about his 'elephant smell' project. Artis, the zoo in Amsterdam, created stations where you can hear, feel and smell like an elephant. For this Frank researched what the substances of the smells are, and how to translate them into scents for humans. Finally he composed the scent of the drafty female, rutting male, and the young male. This lecture he will tell more about how these animals use scents to communicate and what they might mean. Do fruit flies smell? - Jelle Zandveld How do flies always find the fruit? Do they have a sense of smell? Scientist and fruit fly specialist Jelle Zandveld will explain to us more about it. He is doing evolutionary research on fruit flies and he will take some with him too. The smell of the woods - Arne Hendriks Everyone knows that typical smell of the woods. Is it the soil? Are it the trees? No, it is the smell of mycelium! Arne Hendriks is an artist and researcher on human ecology. Currently he is researching how to build with mycelium. He will come to talk more about this interconnecting network, and the specific smell of it. Goat man - Thomas Thwaites Thomas Thwaites explores the psychological and social impacts of technology. His research and making process is often interwoven as a story, told through live performance-lectures, published books, moving image and exhibitions. In his second book, Goat Man, he tells the tale of taking time off from being human by becoming a goat. He escaped the angst of the human condition by roaming around the mountains in the Alps, on four legs with a prosthetic rumen strapped to his chest. How does it feel to live as a non-human? What can we learn from being part of another species group for a while? And in what way can close modern technology help us to fulfill an ancient human dream? Thomas will tell us more about it. Species Mimicry - Peter Roessingh Peter Roessingh is an evolutionary Biologist and Sensory Physiologist working at the University of Amsterdam. His main interests are chemical communication and the evolution of sensory receptors, in particular the role that these receptors may play in the evolution of new species. Peter will speak about species that disguise themselves as other species through smell. Spiders that smell like moths, flowers that smell like flies - how have species evolved and learned to mimic others?