Malaise Trap

"Malaise traps" are used for harvesting insects through passive collecting. The tent-like structure was invented by the Swedish entomologist René Malaise in the 1930s. The trap relies on the interception of flight; the fabric funnels passing insects towards light, and the bugs end up in a translucent collecting vessel attached to the tip of the tented cloth.

My Malaise Trap transforms Malaise’s design into a collective viewing device. Instead of a collecting jar, the tip of the tent is equipped with a set of slide viewers that include photographs of insect bites.