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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
FEAR 09/19
Sissel Tolaas
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Did you ever get a compliment about your smell when you were not wearing a perfume?
Many individuals are highly sensitive to the smell of a component of body odor and sweat called androstenone. These people do not like the smell; they compare it to urine or perspiration. They decide whether or not they like a person based on smell.
I chose to work with men because their sweat contains a lot of androstenone. Nineteen men (bodies) from 19 different parts of the world have only one thing in common: they all suffer from a severe phobia – THE FEAR OF OTHER BODIES. Each man was given a special electronic device to carry all the time. During a fear attack he was to place it under his armpit to suck in his sweat. The collecting pad from the device was sent to me overnight. I analyzed and simulated the original sweat using headspace technology in my lab, Re_searchLab, Berlin.
The sweat molecules were then reproduced chemically. The manufactured smell molecules were microencapsulated in tiny bubble units.
The FEAR of smell
The smell of FEAR
The sweat smell bubbles have been integrated into a transparent, smell-neutral binder used to “paint” the walls. Only touching (the wall/the body) can break the bubbles and release the smells. The smells have all been placed next to each other without any clear borders, like bodies next to each other. They are only separated by the numbers found in the top left corner of each “portrait.”
Many individuals are highly sensitive to the smell of a component of body odor and sweat called androstenone. These people do not like the smell; they compare it to urine or perspiration. They decide whether or not they like a person based on smell.
I chose to work with men because their sweat contains a lot of androstenone. Nineteen men (bodies) from 19 different parts of the world have only one thing in common: they all suffer from a severe phobia – THE FEAR OF OTHER BODIES. Each man was given a special electronic device to carry all the time. During a fear attack he was to place it under his armpit to suck in his sweat. The collecting pad from the device was sent to me overnight. I analyzed and simulated the original sweat using headspace technology in my lab, Re_searchLab, Berlin.
The sweat molecules were then reproduced chemically. The manufactured smell molecules were microencapsulated in tiny bubble units.
The FEAR of smell
The smell of FEAR
The sweat smell bubbles have been integrated into a transparent, smell-neutral binder used to “paint” the walls. Only touching (the wall/the body) can break the bubbles and release the smells. The smells have all been placed next to each other without any clear borders, like bodies next to each other. They are only separated by the numbers found in the top left corner of each “portrait.”
Supported by: IFF (International Flavors&Fragrances Inc.) New York, Mr. Geza Schoen, Berlin, MIT, Cambridge
Sissel Tolaas (NO/IS), artist/researcher and professional “inbetweener”. After diving on oil rigs in Norway, I climbed out of the sea to study mathematics, chemistry, linguistics and visual arts in five different countries. Living in Berlin since the smell of communism. Working on smell, language and communication since 1990, connecting them to science, art, business, academia and children. Established the RE_searchLab Berlin, supported by the IFF (International Flavors & Fragrances Inc.) in 2004.