Caetano Mendes Dias is an interdisciplinary research-based designer, investigating the communication of the Osmocosm and ecological challenges in the discipline of design today. Caetano Mendes Dias We have been graced with five senses, but if we do not cultivate them, we might lose them one day. With the digital space, we have been disconnecting more and more from our physical reality. Obliviating the senses of smell and taste, the only senses that have a direct physical link to our brain. They are as relevant or even more relevant than our other senses, for we need them to have the full image of what we call reality. These senses evoke strong emotions in us, they were and are our initial self-defence mechanisms, the building blocks for our decisions. Today, there is a need to contemplate things - a need for lingering thoughts, critical thinking and imagination! For, many times, problems arise from hasty decisions that should have been thought out. Especially when actions are about to happen, we need to slow down, take a deep breath and smell! As an interdisciplinary designer, I use different media to reflect upon our current social challenges. I believe that multisensory experiences can awaken strong emotions in us, creating empathy and leading to moments of reflection. I have been exploring the sense of smell as a source of knowledge and a catalyst for change, to achieve a society that is more aware of their senses and interconnected with others, humans or non-humans. For a bespoke perfume creation tailored to your unique story, send me an email . EXHIBITIONS 2025 - ROOTS EXHIBITION . (Collective), Palazzo Giureconsulti, Milano, IT 2024 - GRADUATION SHOW . (Collective), Microstad, Eindhoven, NL. 2024 - HUMANS IN SPACES . (Collective), The Space Coolhaven, Rotterdam, NL. 2024 - DIGITAL FOCUS. (Collective), Witte Dame, Design Academy Eindhoven, NL. 2023 - THE SYMBIOCENE FOREST. (Collective), Bio Art Laboratories & DDW, Eindhoven. 2023 - ODOURS OF THE CLIFF . (Permanent) Centro de Interpretação da Reserva Mundial de Surf, Ericeira, PT. 2023 - PORTUGUESE SURF FILM FESTIVAL . (Collective) Galeria Orlando Morais, Ericeira, PT. 2023 - 2.ª BIENAL DE JOVENS CRIADORES DE MAFRA . (Collective) Galeria Orlando Morais, Ericeira, PT. 2023 - JAPANESE KNOTWEED FESTIVAL. (Collective), Mediamatic, Amsterdam, NL. 2023 - SILVA SYSTEM PRESENTS 01. (Collective) De Fabriek, Eindhoven, NL. 2021 - AWESOME, THANKS! (Collective) Design studio, Eindhoven, NL. 2020 - CONFINED.WORK. (Collective) Online. 2020 - FONTE DO CABO. Fonte do cabo, Ericeira, PT. PRESS KIT

An installation that invites you to smell the essential oils of Douglas Firs collected in the Wandelpark, Eindhoven in November 2022. Douglas Fir 2022 An installation that invites you to smell the essential oils of Douglas Firs collected in the Wandelpark, Eindhoven in November 2022. Douglas Firs were originally from the east coast of North America and in 1880 were brought to the Netherlands because of its economic value. However, along with Douglas Fir, other species attracted by its smell came to the Netherlands, thus changing its biodiversity Nowadays, only a small amount of trees found in the Netherlands originate from there, so this brings me to the question: How are we, humans changing the forest’s biodiversity by introducing different scents to them? What do we mean when we use the word “natural”?

The beach is the bridge between the land and the sea, between life and death, the known and the unknown. Map of Praia do Sul 2021 The beach is the bridge between the land and the sea, between life and death, the known and the unknown. This map depicts the visible and invisible matters of the cost and reveals the odd amorphic qualities of the beach in relation to its inhabitants.

DEEP BREATH is a scent which transports us to the deep sea and reminds us that, whether we are humans or extremophiles, having a nose or a chemoreceptor, we are interconnected with all forms of life on this planet. Deep Breath 2024 Deep Breath is a spatial scent that transports us back to the deep sea. The first forms of life on the planet are believed to have lived in the deepest depths of the ocean. These micro-organisms, our earliest ancestors, can be found inside the rocks of hydrothermal vents. Chemoreceptors, or primordial sensors, enable them to survive in this harsh environment filled with sulfur compounds and other substances toxic to most organisms. As they moved into new environments, their receptors evolved into complex systems, allowing them to breathe oxygen and smell their environment, like we do. Deep Breath reminds us of the importance of our olfactory receptors and of just how interconnected we are with all life forms on this planet. Read more about Deep Breath here. Purchase - Deep Breath Eau de Parfum here PRESS KIT

In between life and death, Looking At Nature On Different Scales, Finding Similarities Between Things Invisible Lives In Between Life and Death 2022 Looking At Nature On Different Scales Finding Similarities Between Things What do human artefacts look like under the microscope? What happens to yeast when food starts fermenting? How is the life of our body periphery? What kind and how many insects do we kill in our houses? And what are the relations between all these questions? Insect Spit Hair Ear wax Nail Death skin Nose mucus Sperm Loquat wine Elderflower syrup Fermentad grapes Mold Paper bag Transparent plastic bag Sandwich packaging with an insect White plastic bag Blue plastic bag Insect Spit Hair Ear wax Nail Death skin Nose mucus Sperm Loquat wine Elderflower syrup Fermentad grapes Mold Paper bag Transparent plastic bag Sandwich packaging with an insect White plastic bag Blue plastic bag Everything relates to each other at some point and at a certain level. A plastic bag is one plastic bag but is also a combination of bacteria, air, void, paint, and many other things that we don’t consider. Are all this group of stuff that forms the plastic bag constituents of it, or are they the plastic bag itself? In Ontological reductionism, everything is composed of simples. Simples are the tiniest things that can’t be decomposed and subdivided. A plastic bag is just a combination of simples arranged in a certain way, just like an insect is a combination of simples arranged in a certain way. Can we define a clear line between a plastic bag and an insect? Does the plastic bag even exist? If we agree that it is just a combination of simples, what happens if we remove some simples from it? We didn’t eliminate the plastic bag, and it still has the same properties, but can we still consider it a plastic bag? Probably everything composes something bigger and something smaller at some point. Can we say that we are an individual? We are composed of different organisms that form bigger organisms. We are made of air but is the air that we breathe part of us, or are we part of air? The air that gives life will transform at some point and kill us. There is no individuality nor collectivism, just a combination of different stuff, trogs. Our reality is based on Trogs that we created, but what if we had organized things differently and seen different connections between things? For example, is there something else between a nail and a piece of hair besides themselves? Just because we don’t have a name for that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Our definitions of things are just one way to cut up the plastic reality, they represent made-up symbols within a specific context, but they don’t exist beyond us. They are just concepts. Any assortment of things will compose a thing no matter if we acknowledge it or not. How our understanding of alive defines the idea of biological equity? "Nothing can be transformed into another nature without having been previously converted into ash, lime or earth." Nodo Sophico Enodato

Exploring the relevance of scents in human life and the nuances of olfactory perception. Scented Life Scents 2024 In the context of human life and the importance that smells have to our evolution, I have designed four fragrances that gathered four pivotal olfactory moments from our past, each holding profound significance for our vital state and celebrating our body odour. Human Ancestors (Sulfuric ocean) The first fragrance is sulfuric and oceanic. Sulphur, reminiscent of the scent of rotten eggs, is a primordial element of interstellar space and an outcome of our planet’s geology. Although harmful to humans when inhaled or ingested, is present today, in small amounts, in the food we eat and within our bodies. The smell of sulfur, notably in the sea, is attributed to Dimethyl sulphide (DMS), the most abundant molecule emitted by aquatic life and the heart of the sea’s smell - an aroma of truffles and fresh algae, intertwined with the essence of life and death. The undersea vents are abundant in sulfides and the first forms of life lived around them, in extreme environments on early Earth. These vents nurture resilient extremophiles, microbes adapted to endure intense conditions, who thrived because they learned to source energy from sulphur and developed a symbiosis with other microbes that mutually recharge each other’s energy sources. These biochemical systems that may have been part of life’s boiling beginning, persist even today, in microbes coexisting inside of us. Into the Ovum (Buttery semen) Another crucial moment of human life reveals a secret that takes us back to our beginning. The capability to “smell” extends beyond our noses, spermatozoas, an integral part of semen, have olfactory receptors that allow them to navigate toward the female ovum and create the embryo. The vagina has a microbial community, like lactic acid bacteria, that produce cheesy, butyric, and vinegar volatiles, besides the characteristic metallic and fishy odours. The scent of semen is intriguingly tied to cadavers and death, when semen is inside the body, microbes can not proliferate and change its faint smell, however, when exposure to the air, the spermatozoa die and form putrescine, pyrroline, and cadaverine, which is found in animal death. Putrescine is a foundational element for larger molecules, spermidine and spermine, packed within spermatozoa to help the delivery of male genes to the ovum, and they are also critical for ensuring the proper functioning of DNA and RNA. When in contact with the air, these molecules, and putrescine, create pyrroline, which gives off the smell of semen and is an olfactory reminiscent of the innermost agents at work within our bodies. NOURISHING (Sulfuric cheese and caramelized fruit) Breast milk nourishes newborn mammals and its smells can range from caramel and coconut to butyric and sulfuric tones. The ability, that babies have to find the mother's milk might be linked to the presence of Dimethyl sulphide (DMS) inside the body, an animal-sulfuric volatile also found in saltwater creatures. DMS is found both in the amniotic fluid, released in the womb by microbes in the birth canal, and in the colostrum , when milk encounters bacteria on the mother’s skin or in the infant’s mouth. These benign bacteria, which help us suppress and defend against harmful microbes metabolise the sugar milk and form all kinds of smells: sulphuric from sulfides and thiols; vinegar-like odours from acetic acids; buttery and cheesy odour from diacetyl and butyric acid; and delightfully fruitiness, sweet-coconut odours and caramel qualities from lactones and furanones. The common association of vanilla with breast milk stems not from vanilla itself but from maltol, a compound reminiscent of caramel, praline, and vanilla. Another factor that contributes to the association of vanilla with milk is the fact that any ingredient with vanilla ingested by the mother quickly passes into her milk, which further enriches the sensory experience for the baby. Maternal Love (Oceanic butter) The last crucial moment has to do with the sweet fragrance of newborn babies that contributes to their overall cuteness power, a set of stimuli that quickly awakens the attention of others and creates an emotional bond with the baby. The top of their heads, in particular, emits a delightful scent reminiscent of creamy vanilla-like cheese coupled with an undertone akin to a watermelon ocean. While there is limited research on this subject, it is widely believed that the unique fragrance associated with newborns is attributed to the presence of vernix caseosa (a cheesy varnish), this white waxy coating protects the baby’s skin in utero, retaining moisture and acts as a lubricant during the journey through the birth canal, shielding the infant from vaginal bacteria, and aiding in temperature regulation. Following birth, vernix caseosa continues to play a role in helping the baby’s skin adapt to the external environment, although it is typically washed off after approximately 24 hours, traces of the scent may linger on the baby’s hair and skin for a more extended period, contributing to the delightfull odour of newborn babies.

Caetano Mendes Dias is an interdisciplinary research-based designer, investigating the communication of the Osmocosm and ecological challenges in the discipline of design today.

"No matter where I came from, I say, no matter where I go, to me what matters is where I am on this day" Sea Day 2022 "A short film statement about how I wish to see myself in the future within the design field. A critical point of view towards my frenetic life, filled with information and so little knowledge. A wish for a future with more conversations/discussions and less writing, a future with less art, and fewer books, as in, fewer artefacts, as in, fewer human footprints (especially the footprints that covered the minorities and marginalised). I speak about a future without a human history to a certain extent. A future without physical memories. I admire the future where true knowledge is passed away through our genes, from generation to generation. The moment when the only human (arte)fact, is the humans themselves, no technology besides the human body. Our bodies are already a beautiful and complex limited archive of our ancestor's knowledge . It is in our hasty need, such as this one, to print our thoughts and actions in the world that we fail in saving ourselves from extinction." Brief reflection.

Why do we need more? More stories? Why? I would rather don’t tell the stories about why I don’t want more stories but that’s another story. The Empty Story 2022 This performance and manifesto questions the constant need to create more and tell more. Poem I should ask myself why am I writing this? Is this just one more story to fill in the agenda? Why do we need more? More stories? Why? Embrace the law of noncontradiction I contradict my ideas to tell you more about them There are to many stores being told at the same time all the time And so many empty hearts waiting to be filled with hope I hope there is still meaning behind image I wonder it is there a real story lo De colar Why do we immediately try to kill? - Fling freely in our" houses. Why don't we allow ourselves to be bitten by them? We are afraid of them We don't understand them We don't see them We don't have empathy for them. We were so afraid of dying that we killed all the rest And our desire to achieve eternity lidded us to a "broken" (Eco)system. But isn't dying giving space to new life possibilities? Whenever something dies another born What is death for someone is life for others. I want to show the invisible world Allow new stories to be told Give more space to the others To our family To us We embrace the moth in "our" houses The carpet beetle larvae The silverfish The woodlice Give space to the insects To the larvae I give a woolen web where they can tell their story A non-human story The power of not doing Not saying Not telling Not moving Not breathing Not living. "Speech is silver, silence is golden" Why do we need more? More stories? Why? I would rather don’t tell the stories about why I don’t want more stories but that’s another story. We live in a reality, or shall I say hipper reality, where there are so many stories being told at the same time all the time that our minds become torpid and empty by them. The information runs like a waterfall, and we are passively sitting by the river looking at the overwhelming waterfall. There is no real story, only some futile images to fill the empty space. The system is messed up, the content doesn’t really matter, the dynamics behind the cultural institutions will keep the same no matters what we are trying to tell because the public only wants to see some nice images and have fun, our stories will not change the way things work but will just be another project amount the others to filling in the agenda. Furthermore, our impact in the world had become so big that we are even moving to a new geological epoch because of that. We were so afraid of died or suffering because of it, that we “kill” all the other species instead. Our will to live longer, the need to be healthier and the desire to achieve eternity lidded us to a “broken” (eco)system. When we see a mosquito fling freely in “our” houses, we immediately try to kill them, we don’t want to be bitten by them, we are afraid of them, we don’t understand them, we don’t see them, we don’t have empathy for them. Why don’t we allow ourselves to be bitten by mosquitos? Even if is painful or even, in some cases, we would die, what would be the problem? Shouldn’t we die at some point anyway? If you want, we could say whenever someone dies another born, this means when we die, we give space to new life possibilities. The power of not doing, not saying, not telling, not moving, not breathing, not living. The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT) born in the second half of the 20th century believes that by extinguish our specie (suicide) we could fight clime change (give space to new species/things). It can seem a joke or unsettling but is very beautiful, death is as beautiful as life because what is death for someone is life for others. To conclude my story, I “won’t” tell stories in order to allow new stories to be told, non- human stories, stories about fungi eating our bodies and transforming us back into soil.

INSPIRE ME is a project about the history of Douglas Firs trees (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and their relation with our surroundings. Inspire Me 2023 This research project is about the scent of Douglas Firs trees (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and its ecological impact on the biodiversity of the Netherlands. The project looks at the interspecies relationships with these trees and reflects on our current understanding of “nature” and natural spaces. INSPIRE ME is a project about the history of Douglas Firs trees (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and their relation with our surroundings. Douglas Firs makes part of the big group of gymnosperms trees, each has existed long before the earth knew its current continents. Like in many other conifer trees, the Douglas Firs have a strong scent resembling grapefruit and mandarins blended with pine, and sweet passionfruit notes (or as others may do as well think, the smell of Christmas trees). But actually what we perceive as smell, are, in fact, the VOCs (volatile organic compounds), a group of chemical compounds realized by plants that work as a self-defensive mechanism against other species, either by repelling or attracting them. Humans may perceive VOCs as simple smells, but other species, like insects and fungi, have chemical receptors that detect these compounds to help them navigate and find shelter or food sources. Douglas firs are not native from the Netherlands, they were brought from the east coast of North America, in the 19th century, because of their economic value, and now they can be found everywhere in the Netherlands. Along with this tree, insects and fungi were attracted by their VOCs and learned to live in the Netherlands, creating new relationships. By bringing an exotic species to the Netherlands, we (multiple species) change their biodiversity, even if on a small scale, and new relations are built, such as parasitic or symbiotic relationships. This phenomena, partly caused by humans, and partly caused by trees and other species became hard to be categorized as natural or artificial since they are the result of an interspecies interaction. This shows how impossible it is to disconnect us from nature because it is part of our existence. Instead of trying to label the world we should care and preserve it. Photo by Sabrina Voice-over: Solveig Weimar

- Philanthrosmia 2024 Why should we care more about our body odor? Philanthrosmia, is a neologism, meaning: the care for body odors (philo- love, anthro- human, osmia- smell), and gives name to a series of Body Odor Tastings, where all the participants can discuss the taboos related to body odors, while enjoying them in their food. Being able to accept our body odors as they require a lot of courage and time, as we have been pressured by social restrictions and prejudices to smell a certain way. The aesthetic construction of body odor is biased and it was built upon a colonial and racist past, where certain communities were deemed to smell worse than others due to their difference. Body odors play an important role in our lives, and our ancestors knew it better than we do for they used it to communicate with each other. Nowadays it is not so acceptable, to sniff one another in public, but could we still be implying our curiosity about body smells by enjoying their encounter in our food? During the Body Odor Tastings, all participants are invited to experience courses with whiffs of body odors, and the participants can compose a dish that recreates a body odor of their choice. Philansthrosmia creates a space for debunking olfactory-related body issues and in a broader sense, fosters more interest and awareness towards the sense of smell. This project had the help and support of Jurjen van Nes and the DAE community Experimental Grant.

A short movie that tries to picture Caetano's mindset. The images were collected at Praia do Sul, his childhood beach, where he used to spend his long summer days. Praia do Sul 2021 A short movie that tries to picture Caetano's mindset. The images were collected at Praia do Sul, his childhood beach, where he used to spend his long summer days, shaping his thoughts together with the grains of sand and the soothing waves of the Atlantic Ocean.