English (UK) 
日本語 OLFACTORY LABYRINTH VER.1
space installation (2013)
DATE: September 11, 2013 (wed) – September 29, 2013 (sun)
VENUE: ATSUKOBAROUGH – arts drinks talk
CONTEXT: Sharing Vibes Exhibition
CURATOR: Yukiko SHIKATA
SUPPORT: Yamamoto Perfumery Co., Ltd.
■Introduction - move, smell, and sense -
This looks like an installation with bottles hanging from the ceiling in a grid. It is actually a space designed for olfactory exploration.
Each bottle contains fragrant oil. The candle rope by which it hangs from the ceiling gradually absorbs the oil and spreads the scent around the space. The oil is just strong enough to be smelled from a 20-cm distance.
Each grid is about 40 to 50 cm, just wide enough for a person to walk through while smelling.
Three different fragrant oils are used, and they are placed in such way that a person can trace a smell from bottle to bottle. They are placed in clusters or in lines, like a Reversi game. It's a small, playful "olfactory labyrinth" that also tests your sense of smell.
The construction is flexible, allowing the level of complexity to be adjusted to any target group during exhibition. In this way, it is a platform for experimentation and there is no final, fixed form.
■Focus
The main focus is the olfactory experience rather than the scent itself. Often in olfactory installations or exhibitions, the focus is on guessing a smell or evoking memories and feelings. I think, though, that smell is, in itself, neutral. It's the audience who attribute meanings such as "I dislike this smell" or "This is the smell I knew from my grandma's house" after processing olfactory information in their brains. My memories are different from yours, so how can I assume that what is a "sweet smell" to me will have the same meaning to you?
Such meanings to smells are given from personal experiences and histories. This is why I chose not to give meanings to smells in this project. I rather want to be open to surprising olfactory experiences that we normally wouldn’t encounter in daily life. Omni-directional olfactory experience has been forgotten in our modern life, so reviving it is especially interesting. You can become convinced that human beings, much like dogs, have the ability to sniff around and navigate themselves using their sense of smell.
In our society it's not considered good manners to talk about smell, but it's recommended to do so here!
■Background
In recent years my key words have been "movement" and "olfactory experience". I've been researching omni-directional olfactory experiences within a certain space. The sensations created by actively walking around and finding smells are very different from just passively receiving smells. I think I'm one of the few artists researching this discipline.
I’ve wanted to make an "olfactory labyrinth" for years. I’ve thought about a big construction in an open space, or an interactive installation with sensors. But I first wanted to experiment at low cost, resulting in this first prototype for future development.
I selected the fragrant oils while wondering how to make a finer resolution of smells within a certain space. Without my sponsor Yamamoto Perfumery Co., Ltd. such experimentation would never have been possible.
I tried to exclude visual and audible aspects in this work as much as possible. I let the work explain itself rather than doing so in words. Instead smells and space communicate with your physical sensations, allowing you to project images and play sounds in the mind. I believe that smell possesses such power.
[Cutatorial Note]
On "Sharing Vibes: As Part of Resonating Place"
“Sharing Vibes” is presented as a place where we may discover the world anew by starting to recall the diverse invisible and immaterial information―odors, water veins, flows, etc.―that we usually cannot sense, or fail to notice.
It is in this space that Fuyuki Yamakawa, Maki Ueda and Kenshu Shintsubo will attempt to originate a resonance using, sounds, odors, photography and other media. All three avoid confining their works into distinct media or meanings, and instead regard them as potential information so to prompt us to open up our perceptions and thinking.
Yamakawa showcases a new work that makes underground water flows audible and visible. The research he carried out to create this work will also be presented in the form of a portable map that visitors can take with them in order to feel the water veins in Shibuya. Ueda's “labyrinth” composed of multiple odors is a place where each person gives active attention to the sense of smell. Shintsubo’s works vividly capture the phases of water that circulates the world through the atmosphere and trees.
The mutual interaction among the works，the mutual influence between those who share the space, and the new vibrations that are born through the multiple resonances between the space, the works and the people... A place each of us participate as a part of the exhibition, of the space and of the world. “Sharing Vibes” does not end. (Yukiko SHIKATA, Curator)
OLFACTORY LABYRINTH WORKSHOP
workshop (2013)
"Search the space like a dog"
DATE: September 11, 2013 (wed)
VENUE: ATSUKOBAROUGH – arts drinks talk
CONTEXT: Sharing Vibes Exhibition
CURATOR: Yukiko SHIKATA
SUPPORT: Yamamoto Perfumery Co., Ltd.
OLFACTORY LABYRINTH VER.2
space installation (2015)
https://youtu.be/oQSUKLB5HMg
DATE: Premier March 24, 2015
VENUE: Museum Villa Rot, Germany
CONTEXT: Exhibition “There is something in the air”
CURATOR: Caro Verbeek
SUPPORT: Jean Bouis Perfumery Co., Ltd.
[Experience]
"The walls are inpregnated with different woody smells: Cedarwood, Olibanum, Patchouli, and Labdanum. Find the exit by folling one scent that starts from the entrance."
DATE: February 14, 2019 (premier) – February 14, 2020
https://youtu.be/izy25xQPPrw
https://youtu.be/BiPSGJFmp1o
TANGIBLE SCENTS - COMPOSITION OF ROSE IN THE AIR -
installation in open air (2018)
Tangible Scents is a finalist for the Art and Olfaction Sadakichi Award for Experimental Work with Scent.
The Art and Olfaction Awards celebrate excellence in global independent and artisan perfumery, and experimental work with scent.
[venue] Reed Arts Week 2018 (Reed College), Portland, U.S.A
[curator] Aersen Lease, artistic director for the Reed Arts Week
[Premier] November 15th, 2018
"Tangible Scents" is an open-air installation which uses Maki Ueda's original method of “de-and re-construction in the air” to decode on the scent of rose. The five major components of the this scent are individually infused into vats of soap, which will each be poured into five different bubble machines. You can deconstruct rose into its component scents by poking the bubbles, or immerse yourself in the total scent.
Used Scents:
(1)Phenyl Ethyl Alcohol,
(2)Geraniol,
(3)Phenyl Acetic Acid,
(4)Rose Oxide
(5)Aldehyde C9
Since the late 2017 I’ve been questioning myself “how to make scents more tangible and understandable for audience?”.
I picked “rose” as a theme because it’s universal. There’s no “typical rose scent” but it’s very diverse, from the sweet one to the fresh one, and that fact tells us that “rose” is a concept.
I’ve been experimenting with different medium as candle, perfume, and soap bubbles on this theme. The form of incident varies from workshop to installation.
Tangible Scents is an installation in open air, created as a result of such experimentations. My method here is “de-and re-construction of the scent of rose“. By deconstructing the rose scent in components and then reconstructing them together in the air, its concept becomes more transparent and tangible for the audience.
Five scents, the major components of the scent of rose, are impregnated to soap bubble independently.
(1) Phenyl Ethyl Alcohol (fresh, sweet, floral, sake-like)
(2) Geraniol (fresh, watery, citrusy)
(3) Phenyl Acetic Acid (sour, floral)
(4) Rose Oxide (fresh, metalic)
(5) Aldehyde C9 (fatty, green, cucumber-like)
They are to be diffused with the machines independently.
- By the mixing nature of scent molecules, the field of “the smell of rose” is created, as if the composition is done in the space.
- By being poked, a bubble breaks, and it emits the scent. - You can clearly identify the scent, because the five scents are quite different.
- You can also immerse yourself in the flow of bubbles and just feel the rose.
- You can zoom-in and out with the olfaction.
- Timing is controlled with remote controllers.
- Concentration is adjusted by each scent. Key words:
- tangible scents
- composition in the space
- immersive olfactory experience
- zoom-in and out with olfaction - de- and reconstruction of the scent of rose
EXPERIMENT 1: MINI PERFORMANCE
[organizer] Nozomi Shirai / KYO-SHITSU https://www.ranagram.com/kyo-shitsu/
[venue] WOMB TOKYO
[date] November 2017
Used Scents:
(1) Phenyl Ethyl Alcohol
(2) Citronellol
EXPERIMENT 2: CANDLE INSTALLATION
[title] DECONSTRUCTING AND CONSTRUCTING THE SMELL "X"
[venue] ART HOTEL ISHIGAKI / BAR CAPRICORN
[curator] Tomoko Takamine
[premier] November 2017
Used Scents:
(1) phenyl ethyl alcohol / PINK
(2) geraniol / TURQUOISE BLUE
(3) citronellol / YELLOW
(4) linalool / ORANGE
(5) euginol / PURPLE
(6) rose oxide / WINE RED
(7) aldehyde C9 / GREEN
EXPERIMENT 3: WORKSHOP
[organizer] Hitoshi Watanabe (NPO Shima-no-Youchien)
[venue] Yachimun-kan, Ishigaki Isl.
[premier] August 2018
Used Scents:
(1) phenyl ethyl alcohol
(2) citronellol
(3) linalool
(4) rose oxide
(5) aldehyde C9
OLFACTORY LABYRINTH VER. 4
- Find the Spot for Ohanami -
space installation (2018)
DATE: June 4 to October 21, 2018
VENUE: Japan House Sao Paulo (premier)
CURATOR: Felipe RIEBENBOOM
SPONSOR: –
Total visitors: 307,439
Total media reports: 114
Also Exhibited at:
Kiyosu Haruhi Art Museum, 2019
National Taiwan Museum of Art, 2020
[Experience]
This is the 4th version of my Olfactory Labyrinth Series, exploring space, movement and olfaction started in 2013. It is a maze with a metaphor of ohanami.
Ohanami is the Japanese traditional custom of picnic party for enjoying cherry blossoms in early spring. “Find the best spot for ohanami, with the sense of smell”, is the assignment to the audience. As you get closer to the invisible sakura (cherry blossoms) trees, it smells stronger.
[Technical Facts]
There are 81 bottles hanging from the ceiling in the grid of 9x9. Each bottle contains fragrant oil. The candle rope by which it hangs from the ceiling gradually absorbs the oil and spreads the scent around the space. The oil is just strong enough to be smelled from 35 cm distance. Each grid is thus 70 cm, just wide enough for a person to walk through while smelling. In order to make it possible, the solvent is carefully calibrated as follows: ethanol 80% (emitting property) / propylene glycol 20% (fixative property) .
This version is inspired by The Weber-Fechner Law on psychophysics: the logarithmic relation between the actual change in a physical stimulus and the perceived change. The concentration increases in 3 steps in multiple of 33, as a result of many experimentations: (1) 10.00% (2) 0.33% (3) 0.01% (4) 0.00%
The fragrance sakura is composed by myself as well. I tried to resemble it to the blossoms in the night, which emits very soft and powdery scent in silence.
The last step of the development is composition of colors. The higher concentration has darker color, so there needs color adjustment by each concentration, in order to mask the concentration visually.
