English (UK) 
日本語 FIND THE SCENT OF TULIPS
(OR FIND CONFUSION...)
permanent installation at Amsterdam Tulip Museum (2012)
Put your head in these tulips. You will notice they smell of various bulbous flowers: Tulip, Hyacinth and Narcissus (Daffodil). But which one carries the actual scent of tulips?
Ordered by: Amsterdam Tulip Museum
Concept: Maki Ueda
Realization: Nezu Aymo Architect
Special thanks to Omega Ingredients (www.omegaingredients.co.uk)
THE JUICE OF WAR
for “The Smell of War” exhibition
Title: The Juice of War – Hiroshima and Nagasaki –
Year: 2015
When I was a child, my bedroom contained a shelf of my mother’s books and one of these book was about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Inside I found photos of burned and rotten bodies. A field full of bodies that no longer look like bodies. It was in the high summer season so the bodies would quickly rot and flies laid eggs wherever they could.
The photos were so shocking to me that for nights I was afraid to go to sleep. But I did not dare ask my mother to remove that book from my bedroom because it seemed rude to the victims. As I grew up I peeked into the book again and again, out of curiosity for the atomic bombings, and I realized that I was getting better in dealing with the fear. I ended up sleeping with that book until I left home at the age of 17.
The photos were so shocking to me that for nights I was afraid to go to sleep. But I did not dare ask my mother to remove that book from my bedroom because it seemed rude to the victims. As I grew up I peeked into the book again and again, out of curiosity for the atomic bombings, and I realized that I was getting better in dealing with the fear. I ended up sleeping with that book until I left home at the age of 17.
I completely forgot about these pictures, but all of sudden, while I was thinking what to show here, I realized that they were the reason why I could not think anything else beside the smell of rotten flesh when I think of “the smell of war”.
In other words, working on this concept was digging into my memories.
Instruction:
Please put your head in a bowl. This smell was manually extracted from the juice of burned and rotten flesh.
The prime minister of Vlamish government also enjoyed the work at the opening.
At: The castle De Loving, Poperinge, Belgium.
The Smell of War exhibition:
Curated by: Peter de Coupere
[making]
This is a bizarre story of purchasing meat of 20 euros at a supermarket, and made it rotten till it starts stinking for extracting the smell… I am a bit ashamed to tell you the whole story but this is the real story behind this work.
When the curator Peter de Coupere asked me to participate in the exhibition with the theme of "the smell of war", I could not think of anything else than the smell of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That would be the case by most of Japanese. We grew up with reading the cartoons "Hadashi no gen はだしのゲン", with full of illustration of burned and rotten corps and maggot. Also it illustrates the bad odor.
The interface design:
Purchasing the parts for "katrol"
I sew the acrylic bowl myself because there was no company who could do this... it was quite some work.
I asked Peter, the organizer, for hanging the bowl with some instructions.
In Japan at my atelier: I bought pieces of meat at a local supermarket: checkin and pork, and burned them.
And dried them for 10 days in the sunlight.
This is the simulation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was high in the summer time when they got bombed, and the burned corps got rotten quickly. Flies lay eggs and it stank terribly everywhere.
After 5 or 6 days they started to smell like a garbage. Around the 10th day it started to stink sour, and this was the limit (also for my neighbor...).
I extracted a little to check the smell and turned out that it was missing the burned scent, so I burned them extra.
Then sliced them. My cutting board was suddenly covered with the flies. It was like a horror movie. I couldn't inhale even, so I inhaled the fresh air 10meters away and ran to the cutting board, and repeated this.
After the extraction, I filterd it, but it also releases smells everywhere... I got headache from it. If I would have continued this process I would have gotten depressed.
In my fridge is the extract and beer mixed up…it's safe as long as it's concealed :-)
OLFACTORY MEMORY GAME
installation / educational workshop (2010)
[venue] RAM Gallery, Rotterdam
[premier] March 15th, 2015
[exhibition period] 15/03/2015 - 26/04/2015
Please make pair with scents.
Just as Kodo, a Japanese olfactory game, I used all woody scents.
Cedarwood
Sandalwood
Styrax
Labdanum
That Microplastics Smell Delicious!
- Can Smells Contribute to Solving the Problems of Global Warming? -
installation (2023)
DATE: Sep 22, 2023
Concept:
Recent science has shown that marine organisms mistake microplastics for food not because of their appearance, but because of their smell. Plastic is a material that easily absorbs odors. It also absorbs Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS), an odor produced by plankton. Marine organisms have poor vision and a keen sense of smell, so there is no doubt for them that plastic is a "pseudo-bait”.
In this work, the blue balls represent the ocean and the white balls represent plastics. By designing the smell of microplastics (DMS) in such a way that humans can easily smell them, this work questions environmental issues through smell.
[コンセプト]
海の生物がマイクロプラスチックを餌と間違えてしまうのは、その見かけからではなく、匂いからだということが、最近の科学で明らかになっています。プラスチックは匂いを吸着しやすい素材です。プランクトンの生成する匂い、Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS)も吸着します。海の生物は視覚が弱く、嗅覚は鋭いので、プラスチックが「擬似エサ」であることを疑うことはできないのです。
この作品では、青い玉は海を表し、白い玉はプラスチックを表しています。マイクロプラスチックの匂い(DMS)を人間が嗅ぎやすいように設計することにより、匂いによる環境問題への問いかけをするものです。
[展示の技術]
DMSの沸点は38度であり、平均21度の海水では適度に保持されますが、展示の室温と湿度下ではすぐに揮発してしまいます。そのため、１日２０滴ほど安定して滴下し、持続的に香るよう、溶剤を調整する技術を応用しています。
Technique:
The boiling point of DMS is 38 degrees Celsius, which means it is moderately retained in seawater, which averages 21 degrees Celsius, but quickly volatilized under the temperature and humidity of the exhibition space. Therefore, I have applied a technique to adjust the solvent so that about 20 drops per day are dropped to release odor stability.
DINNER FOR THE MUTED SENSES
- a food art workshop for five (or more) senses in a restaurant setup -
workshop / event (2009)
It is free of the eyes, ears, nose,
tongue, body and mind;
free of sight, sound, smell, taste,
touch, and any object of mind;
free of sensory realms
including mind-consciousness.
- The Buddhist Heart Sutra -
CONCEPT
A unique food art workshop in a restaurant set-up. Each course is served with an intervention of one of your senses, such as blindfolding, amplifying or muting to enhance your sensitivities and experience new sensations. All in Japanese lacto-ovo vegetarian style prepared with organic ingredients.
The workshop is developed by Maki Ueda, an artist who is known for her artworks focusing on the olfactory sense.
Eating is something to appreciate with the five (or more) senses. In this extraordinary Japanese course dinner you will witness that, with full of sensations, inspirations, and findings.
photos: Moritz Bernoully
DISHES:
WELCOME DISH / お通し
for the sensory sounds with the hearing sense muted / amplified
PLEASE WEAR THE EARPLUGS
- rice crackers with aonori seaweeds 青海苔せんべい
- fermented miso natto with cucumber (morokyu) もろきゅう
- fried noodles (age somen) 揚げそうめん
- seaweed salad わかめサラダ
- fried buckwheat sticks (soba karinto) そばかりんとう
- fresh soybeans (edamame) 枝豆
- pickls (kojizuke, family recipe) 麹漬け（上田家秘伝）
- mixed nuts ミックスナッツ
taste & smell experiments 1. smell the MISO SOUP PERFUME with the paper (or spray it into your mouth if you like)
1. MISO SOUP PERFUME is distilled miso soup. It's transparet, but contains the flavours. See from time to time how the charactor of smell changes.
- top note (green onion)
- middle note (shitake / kombu)
- last note (miso)
2. Taste the (real) miso soup.
MAIN DISH / 主菜
PLEASE WEAR THE BLINDFOLD
You will get exactly the same dish twice!
1st one:
- blind folded
- use your hands
2nd one:
- take off the blindfold
- use the chopsticks
DESSERT / デザート
surprising ice creams PLEASE WEAR THE BLINDFOLD AND EARPLUGS
SPECIAL DRINK
Green Tea for flavour pairing
Spray the orange juice perfume into your mouth, then taste the green tea. "Food combines well when they have major components in common" : the concept widely accepted in the molecular gastronomy scene (www.foodpairing.be)
INSPIRATION
This workshop is primarily inspired by the activities of artists-collective FoAM in Brussels. One of the inspiring events that Maja Kuzmanovic has developed at FoAM was Open Sauces (Nov. 2008). It was about the future of food in many different perspectives. The issues herein included were: molecular gastronomy, food pairing, eating and senses (where Maki Ueda has contributed), logistics and food problems, safety of foods, etc.
DEVELOPMENT
For the documentations, please visit the blog site Scent Laboratory [DINNER FOR MUTED SENSES]
CREDITS
concept & development : Maki Ueda
cooking : Noriko & Maki Ueda
service : Misae Endo & Maria, Tomoko Inamura
special thanks to : Camera Japan Festival