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\n In an exhibit at the Samek Art Museum, artist Jonathon Keats explores what the world would look like if animals and plants got to use human innovation for their own benefit. Here, flowers use “botanical sex toys” to simulate bee pollination. “What got me thinking was the fact that (artificial pollination) didn’t seem like much fun for the plants,” Keats says.<\/p>\n
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Jonathon Keats<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Jonathon Keats<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n In an exhibit at the Samek Art Museum, artist Jonathon Keats explores what the world would look like if animals and plants got to use human innovation for their own benefit. Here, flowers use “botanical sex toys” to simulate bee pollination. “What got me thinking was the fact that (artificial pollination) didn’t seem like much fun for the plants,” Keats says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jonathon Keats<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Humans have long looked to animals for design inspiration. From basic camouflage to a quiet bullet train in Japan<\/a> to the Wright brothers’ wings, the process called biomimicry is a basic tenet of human engineering.<\/p>\n Jonathon Keats has turned it on its head.<\/p>\n The artist and philosopher’s latest exhibit<\/a>, at the Samek Art Museum at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, is a thought experiment on the selfish ways we humans innovate.<\/p>\n The central question of the works: We steal the animal kingdom’s evolutionary inventions, so why shouldn’t the animal kingdom steal ours?<\/p>\n “What I’ve observed as I’ve researched these inventions is that they’re really great for us, but not necessarily so good for the species that came up with them in the first place,” Keats told NPR Here Now<\/em> host Robin Young. “Or more broadly, that our technologies have made the world much more difficult for life on the planet aside from us.”<\/p>\n He didn’t need to create anything new to show the absurdity of human problem-solving \u2014 all he had to do was give our technology to animals. The pieces in his exhibit are based on actual problems, and demonstrate solutions that are technically<\/em> within the realm of possibility.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n