Fertility Cycle Object (2007)

“Bees have a phenomenal odor perception,” explains designer Susana Soares in the exhibition catalog. “They can be trained within minutes using Pavlov’s reflex to target a specific odor.” When a woman breaths into the Fertility Cycle Object, bees are trained to fly to the large interior chamber if the woman is ovulating, the middle chamber during pre-ovulation, and the smallest chamber during post-ovulation. “This exhibition is about science—not only about technology—because I saw the possibility of almost bypassing technology for once and creating a short circuit between design and science,” says Antonelli. The Fertility Cycle Object is made of hand-blown borosilicate glass.

One_Shot.MGX foldable stool

The legs of this futuristic-looking stool fall into place neatly in one swift motion when you lower the stool by its seat. The real design flourish, though, is the manufacturing process. The entire stool (joints and all) is printed three-dimensionally using laser sintering technology.

“The stool was made that way because it was possible,” explains MoMA curator Paola Antonelli. “It’s like, ‘Why did we climb Mount Everest? Because it’s there.’ Here, they've taken a technological breakthrough and expressed it in the most beautiful, elegant, and effective way possible. A stool like that, which would be gorgeous if it were made of separate tubes of iron put together in the most old-fashioned way, becomes magical when you know that it’s all printed in one shot. It’s the expression of a possibility.”