- PASSPORT TO ISHIGAKI ISLAND -

installation (2019)

[Place] Ishigaki City Center for Culture, Ishigaki Japan (premier)

[Dates] 24.04.2019. - 19.05.2019.

[Artist] Maki UEDA (solo exhibition)

[Curator] Tomohiro OKADA (Blue Ocean Foundation / Shimanova)

[Experience]

How do you smell, when you lay down? Is it different from how we normally smell: sitting or standing?

In this work you lay down in a private dark space, let your body release and relax, and smell.  The parasympathetic nervous system becomes active then, and consequently you would smell the scent differently than you do in the normal context where the sympathetic nervous system is active.  You are ‘in’ the scent, drown, or completely immersed.  



What you smell here is the scent of night flowers, but you smell it unconsciously.
[Story]

Ishigaki Island, where I live, is a fragrant island.  During the hot and humid summer nights we often smell the night flowers in bed as if it is “a perfume of the night”.  It comes up in mind but also disappears quickly, and it repeats. We go back and forth conscious and unconscious smelling.  I have taken this experience and shaped it in the form of this installation. 



When we smell in a western or city context, scent (or fragrance) is something special.  For us in the rural area here, scent is something always there, we take it for granted and not that special. Cities are the consumers of fragrances, but rural areas are the producer.  People here do not wear fragrances, because it’s surrounded by the natural scents of the environment. How people appreciate scents here became an inspiration for this work.

[Technical Fact]

I have used self-extracted Silk Jasmine, a common plant here, and added a touch of fragrance I composed, as booster and fixative.  The scent is impregnated in the paper petals.


 [Research]

It is a research of a biome* from olfactory perspective, and also how people interact with the biome with the olfactory sense. 

*“A biome is a community of plants and animals that have common characteristics for the environment they exist in. Biomes are distinct biological communities that have formed in response to a shared physical climate.” - wikipedia

I have been extracting various plants of the island, and found out that there were common substances present in the extracts.  They were exhibited next to this installation.

For example, we have a lot of night blooming flowers, and they always have hidroxycitronellal type of substances in common. It must be for attracting moths and to get more chance of pollination. Spicy and citrus aspects are often found in leaves, and it must be for surviving in this extremely hot and humid summer here. (Camphoraseus substances as 1,8 cineol, often found in the cold climate area, were less found here - probably it’s too hot for such substances.)

List of raw extracts exhibited (self made)
1. Camphor
2. Shell Ginger Flower
3. Taiwan sugar palm
4. Gardenia
5. Barringtonia
6. Water Lily
7. Ryukyu Pine Tree
8. Vetiver

- Can Smells Contribute to Solving the Problems of Global Warming? -

installation

premier: Sep 15, 2020, at Mazda 100 years anniversary

curator: Natacha Ami (48 Nord Paris)

sponsor / producer: Mazda France + 48 Nord Paris

Does a smell make you feel cooler or warmer? This installation is a laboratory-like work on the senses of smell and temperature, inspired by this question. Two independent compartments are kept at the same temperature. One of them is a diffusion of a group of smells that are said to act on the cold senses, and the other is a diffusion of a group of smells that are said to act on the warm senses. The participants were asked to move back and forth between the two spaces to confirm the effect of the diffusion.

If you can feel cooler in the "cool room", you can actively use those smells in the hot summer, or you can use the smells in the "warm room" when it's cold. We may be able to gain resilience through smells and reduce our energy consumption.

Aromatic substances work not only on our noses, but also on our lungs, eyes and other mucous membranes. In fact, when I was testing a cold scent, my lungs felt cold, even though it was a very hot and humid summer day. The warm scent made my throat hot. Aromatic substances are absorbed through the sweat glands as well as the mucous membranes. Smells can even work on cold and warm sensations in this way, even if they are not recognized as smells.

For this research, I received some general advice from Jas Brooks, a scientist and artist at the University of Chicago.I also benefited from the "Smell, taste, & temperature symposium" which he is leading. This area seems to be still unknown even to scholars. Regarding the effects of specific aromatic substances on the trigeminal system, I referred to the article "Chemosensory Properties of the Trigeminal System" by Félix Viana. 

{Components of the Cooling Fragrance}

• menthol
• eucalyptol
• thymol
• citral
• cinnamaldehyde
• linalool
• methyl salicylate

{Components of the Warming Fragrance}

• Black pepper
• Camphor
• Eugenol
• Red Chili Extract (self extracted)
• Methyl Salicylate

[Artist Statement]

I am deeply grateful to Mazda and the agent for inviting me here and commissioning my new work.

I have been working in the Netherlands/Japan as an olfactory artist since 2005.  Actually this work is an epidemic in my long career.  This is because it is the first time I have tackled the social problem as global warming.  Climate change is a serious global problem. Why is it 37 degrees today in Paris, in the middle of September?　

What can we do about it with smells?  For example, can we change the way we feel hot and cold with olfaction? This  question was my starting point.  The title of the work is: Smells for the Paris Agreement.

I am diffusing a cooling fragrance and a warming fragrance, made with scientific data, in each of two spaces that are controlled to have the same temperature.  You are all witnesses and test subjects for this little experiment.

I asked a young scientist Jas Brooks from Chicago University for advice which molecules to use. I also read the paper regarding trigeminal nerves and transient receptor potential(TRP), the receptors related to temperature.  What was fascinating to me was that, like perfumery, it's important to have a balance between the components.  Some components can be both cooling and warming. Methyl Salicylate is a good example.  This is a common scent used in a cold and a warm patch.  When combined with black pepper, it works for warmth, and when combined with eucalyptol or menthol, it works for coolness.

The following components were used in the final composition.  They are mostly Synesthetic:

{The Cooling Fragrance}
menthol
eucalyptol
thymol
citral
cinnamaldehyde
linalool
methyl salicylate

{The Warming Fragrance}
Black pepper
Camphor
Eugenol
Red Chili Extract (self extracted)
Methyl Salicylate

Interestingly, linalool, eugenol and cinnamaldehyde, which I used for a cooling fragrance, are considered “warm scents” in perfumery.  This is where science and art differ.  In this work, I faithfully followed the science.

It's also interesting to note that Menthol, the heart of a cooling fragrance, only works at temperatures below 25 degrees Celsius.  Today, it's hard to get below 25, so it's possible that the cooling room isn't working properly.  I wasn't expecting it to get this hot in Paris. However people mentions that they feel like being in a forest in the cooling room.

In my own experiment I found that my throat was dry in the warm room.  Yesterday's guest described its dry feel as "cork-like". In contrafry, My lungs were cold in the cold room, and I also felt cold where I sweated.  Smells are absorbed by the body through mucous membranes and sweat glands, even if we don't feel they are smells. 

Enjoy the intersection of the senses of smell and touch.

- What if coronaviruses were something you could smell and see? -

installation

"Viral Parfum" is the winner for the Art and Olfaction Sadakichi Award 2022 for Experimental Work with Scent!

premier: May 7, 2021, at Städtische Galerie Bremen (Germany)

curator: Ingmar Lähnemann

sponsor / producer: Städtische Galerie Bremen (Germany)

Since the appearance of the new coronavirus, we try to avoid airborne viruses by ventilating the air, meeting people in places where droplets cannot reach us, wearing masks to protect ourselves, and washing off viruses that may have gotten on our hands. In order to learn more about the virus we have been trying to see and visualise the invisible viruses, often in laboratory settings.

I came to the idea that the way this virus spreads has similarities to the way scents spread. Scents also spread in the air, so I often pay attention to air convection and ventilation, I also wear a mask when working with strong fragrances, and when handling fragrances, I change my gloves frequently to prevent the scent from spreading to other bottles.

Here are some of the similarities that scents and coronaviruses share:
- They are both too small to be seen.
- They spread through the air.
- They are spread by adhesion
- They disappear over time.

In this exhibition, I use scents to represent the different mutations of the virus. Visitors may spray the "viral parfum" anywhere they like in the room. Other visitors can detect and recognise the scents to find out where the virus is attached. The virus is invisible under normal light, but is occasionally illuminated by using a black light.

There are six different types of viruses here, including mutations. Each of them has a different fragrance, and when combined, they create the scent of white lily. It is a fragrance to mourn and honour the deaths caused by the novel coronavirus.

NO.1: Skyblue : Ylang ylang oil, Hidroxycitronellal
NO.2: Green  : Citronellol, Ionone alpha, Iso Eugenol
NO.3: Yellow : Ylang ylang oil
NO.4: Blue : Nerol, Geraniol, Paracresyl Phenyl Acetate 
NO.5: White : Linalool, Vanillin, Phenyl Acet Ataldehyde 
NO.6: Orange: Neroli Base (original composition)

Making photos:

- an exhibition of extinct and impossible smells -

collective exhibition (2008)

exhibition venue : Reg Vardy Gallery, Sunderland, U.K.

curator : Robert Blackson

CURATORIAL TEXT

Scent is the essence of physical presence and lends proof to our surroundings.  Contrastingly, the fourteen scents commissioned for this exhibition are inspired by absence.  Their forms are drawn from disparate stories throughout history for which few, if any, objects remain.  Our relationship to each of these scents is guided by an accompanying text.  These words are not intended to direct interpretation, but to set a stage for the scent to fill.  To know something by its scent alone, as a pure "olfactory image" is a rare event, and it is with this intention that the exhibition has been arranged as you would a cabinet of intangible curiosities.

MY CONTRIBUTION

What I've made for this exhibition was the scent of body odor; the scent of East Germany citizen that got captured his/her own body odor without being aware of it.

Body odor collection, Stasi Museum, Berlin Germany

Body Odour

On December 28, 1989, a slim young woman named Susanne Böden was handing out leaf lets in East Berlin with her little sister. The leaf lets promoted f ree speech for citizens of the Deutsche Democratic Republic. Shortly after she started handing them out, Susanne was arrested by the Stasi, or East German secret police. She stood trial at Stasi headquarters in East Berlin and was served with a caution. Before being released, the Stasi gave her a square of fabric to wipe against the back of her neck. This fabric was then kept by the Stasi in a sealed jar with her name on it.

A person’s body odour is as distinctive and traceable as a fingerprint. The Stasi tracked the movements of suspected dissenters with trained sniffer dogs. To get the scent of their suspects, the Stasi employed a variety of methods such as breaking into apartments and stealing dirty clothes or sitting suspects in a heated room for questioning. The Stasi would then save a patch of fabric from this chair’s upholstery that had absorbed the suspect’s body odour.

The Berlin Wall f ell within months of Susanne’s trial. During the ensuing celebrations Stasi Headquarters were ransacked. Inside a small room at the headquarters, revellers found hundreds of jars labelled with people’s names and stuffed with bits of fabric.

Scent by Maki Ueda

(text by Robert Blackson, curator)

DEVELOPMENT

Like I always do I made the extracts from the scratch.

the first experiment:

extracting sweat from my own clothes

the second experiment:

We smell of what we eat. I've used whatever I could find in the kitchen for extraction, and then composed "an body odor" with them.

More documentations: http://scent-lab.blogspot.com/search/label/%5BIf%20There%20Ever%20Was%5D

BOOK

This is the catalogue of the exhibition If there ever was　- an exhibition of extinct and impossible smells - . All the smells exhibited are printed with microencapsulation. It's the book for scratch & sniff.

If There Ever Was: a book of extinct and impossible smells

ISBN: 978-0-9557478-0-9 (rrp £12.00) * SOLD OUT *

distributed by: Cornerhouse, www.cornerhouse.org

published by: Art Editions North

Hoever the book is sold out, the text of the book can be viewed here : "IF THERE EVER WAS - TEXT"