WILDNESS AND OLFACTION +

+ the smell is the message

+ Redo your Emotions

workshop (2024)
DATE: Aug 14-15, 2024
VENUE: Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto Japan
CONTEXT: 28th Kyoto International Dance Workshop Festival 2024 https://hotsummer2024.studio.site
CURATOR + COLLABORATOR: Emi Ogura
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Sense of Smell

Smell is an element that directly affects our physiological body, emotions, and thoughts.
In this class, we will focus on how smell affects our animal instincts and our social bodies, and learn how to work with smell in a more analytical way.
The first half of the course will focus on the theme of “Smell and Wildness: How to Signalize Smell” and how animals and insects actually use “smell” in a variety of ways.
In the second half, the relationship between breathing and smell will be explored by interweaving Western and Eastern breathing techniques, followed by experimental work on the relationship between the sense of smell and the autonomic nervous system under the theme of “Human Use of Smell / Sense of Smell and Emotion”. Is it really possible to “rework emotions” through smell?

Lecturers: Maki Ueda and Emi Ogura

Dates: 8.14(Wed) – 8.15(Thu) 14:00-16:00, 2 sessions

Venue:Kyoto Art Center Free Space

Fee: ¥3,300 per session, ¥6,000 for the whole performance

Capacity: 20 people (priority given to those attending all sessions)

嗅覚

「におい」は人間の生理的身体、情緒、思考に直接的に働きかける要素です。
このクラスでは「におい/嗅覚」が我々の動物的本能、そして社会性を持ち合わせた身体にどのような影響をもたらすかに焦点を当て、より分析的に「におい」を扱う方法について学んでいきます。
前半では「嗅覚と野性/においを信号化するには」というテーマで、実際に動物や昆虫がどのように”におい”を多用しているかを体感します。
後半では、呼吸とにおいの関係性について、西洋と東洋の呼吸法を織り交ぜながら探求し、「人間的なにおいの使い方/嗅覚と感情」というテーマで、嗅覚と自律神経の関係性について実験的なワークを行います。果たして、”におい”によって”感情をやり直す”ことは可能なのでしょうか?

講師:上田麻希 × 小倉笑

日程:8.14(水) – 8.15(木) 14:00-16:00 全2回

会場:京都芸術センター フリースペース

料金:¥3,300/1回、¥6,000/通し

定員:20名(通し優先)

WILDNESS AND OLFACTION

the smell is the message

workshop (2021)
DATE: Nov 28, 2021 [premier]
VENUE: Root Culture Lab Kamakura (R∞∞T Lab)
CONTEXT: ART THINKING WEEK
CURATOR: Kohji Setoh
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Wildness and Olfaction Workshop Report:.
This workshop was conducted by Maki Ueda, a “smell artist” who attempts to fuse art and the sense of smell.
The idea was to follow the evolution of living creatures and role-play the activities of the natural world through the sense of smell, pretending to be a creature in the wild.
Lined up on the table are fragrances consisting of specific molecules that function as messages in predation and reproduction scenes for creatures living in nature.
Catching prey.
Returning to their homes.
Finding a place to lay eggs.
These activities related to food, clothing, and shelter are repeated by living creatures on a daily basis by smelling different smells.
Participants are then asked to take actions based on smell alone, as if they were fish, frogs, snakes, or ticks. ……
An eye mask is worn over the eyes. Your vision is obstructed.
Many impromptu wild creatures are walking right and left, knowing that the smell is coming from somewhere, but not knowing where it is coming from.
It was impressive to see the look of relief on the faces of many of them as soon as the eye masks were removed.
The human nose has a strong presence in the center of the face.
Despite this, I realized that it is not utilized as a means of accurately processing information from the outside as much as I had expected.
According to Ueda, we humans judge things primarily through our higher senses, such as sight and hearing, overlaid with reason and emotion.
If we pay more attention to “smell” in our daily lives, the way we see the world may change a little.
In addition to Ueda’s explanation of smells and ecology, participants’ words based on their abundant knowledge popped up, and it was a very fulfilling time.

野性と嗅覚レポート:
アートと嗅覚の融合を試みる「匂いのアーティスト」、上田麻希さんによる今回のワークショップ。
生物の進化を追いながら、野生の生き物になりきって自然界の営みを嗅覚でロールプレイングしよう、というものです。
テーブルに並ぶのは、自然の中で暮らす生物にとって、捕食や生殖の場面でメッセージとして機能する、特定の分子で成る香料。
獲物を捕まえる。
自分の家に帰る。
産卵する場所を探す。
こういった衣食住にまつわる行動を、生き物たちは匂いを嗅ぎ分けることで日々繰り返しているそうです。
そこで参加者は魚やカエル、ヘビやダニに変身したつもりで、匂いだけを頼りにアクションを起こすように求められますが……。
目にはアイマスクを着用。視界は遮られています。
どこかから匂うということはわかるけれど、その出どころがわからず、右往左往する即席野生生物さんが続出。
アイマスクを外した瞬間、ほっとした表情を浮かべる方が多かったのも印象的でした。
顔の真ん中で、存在感を発揮している人間の「鼻」。
その割に、外部からの情報を正確に処理する手段としては、思ったほど活用されていないのだと実感しました。
上田さんによると、人間は視覚や聴覚のような上級感覚を主として、そこに理性や感情をかぶせて物事を判断しているとのこと。
日常生活でもっと「匂い」に意識を向ければ、世界の見え方も少し変わるかもしれませんね。
上田さんの匂いや生態にまつわる解説に加えて、参加者の方々の豊富な知識に基づいたワードがポンポンと飛び出す、とても充実したひとときでした。

ALSO CONDUCTED AT:

28th Kyoto International Dance Workshop Festival 2024 https://hotsummer2024.studio.site

CURATOR AND COLLABORATOR: Emi Ogura

OLFACTORY LABYRINTH VER. 6

– Pheromone as a Message –

space installation (2024)

DATE: November 7th, 2024
CONTEXT: Exhibition “Koō-suru” at Aizumi Art Museum
CURATOR: Asuka Taniguchi and the students of the Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts
PRODUCER: Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts
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[Concept]

This installation features nine seemingly identical bottles. Six of them contain different synthesized pheromones and three of them contain only a dissolvent. The strings that suspend the bottles descend in the bottles, absorb the scents and disperse them into the air. Moving autonomously like a mobile, the bottles simulate the flow of people in an urban setting. This work examines olfactory perception in a context where the movements of scents and individuals constantly shift in relation to one another.

The concept critically reflects on society’s fascination with pheromones. In nature, pheromones are vital messengers for survival. For example, truffles contain androstenol, a pheromone found in male pig saliva. When a female pig detects it, she assumes a mating posture, which humans use as a clue to locate truffles underground. Androstenol is also present in human sweat and urine, but it does not evoke the same behavioral response in humans. The vomeronasal organ, responsible for perceiving pheromones, has atrophied in humans, rendering these substances ineffective in the way they function for animals.

Even so, the belief in pheromones persists. In this installation, observe your reaction as a bottle passes by. Do you sense anything? Where is the line between pheromone and scent? The work explores boundaries: what can be smelled and what cannot, what is felt and what is not, what attracts or repels.

[About the Series]

Olfactory Labyrinth is a series that explores themes of olfaction and movement. This version builds upon ver. 4, while ver. 7 shares a similar structure but focuses on the facets of scents carried by mountain air.

[Medium]

Bamboo skewers, glass bottles, strings, silk threads, synthetic fragrance materials (aromatic substances presumed to be pheromones), and solvents.

[Exhibited Pheromones]

All pheromones displayed are perfume materials sourced from PerfumersWorld. They are not animal-derived but are artificially synthesized, and provided at lower concentrations than recommended to ensure safety.

A: α-Androstenol (Sample Bottle 1)

B: β-Androstenol

C: Estratetraenol (Sample Bottle 2)

D: Copulins

E: Androstenone (Sample Bottle 3)

F: Androsterone

Smell them individually (focused), or all together (zoomed out) on the test strips. It was revealed during the exhibition that younger individuals were more likely to detect the scents, while many people over the age of 30 reported being unable to smell them easily. Therefore, the experience of “not being able to smell” is also an integral part of this work.