++ hanahana

:: perfume, table, paper, scent sensor, video projector, computer etc.
:: 500 × 1500 × 1700
:: [ interactive installation ]
:: 2006

“hanahana” is an interactive art installation which enables the visualization of scent.

From ancient times humans have made use of scent to obtain information about their surroundings ― to predict dangers, and sometimes even to relax themselves. Scents have also been recognized as a trigger for evoking one’s memory.

Scent is unstable and changes with environmental factors such as its origin, the air current, temperature and humidity. In addition, the human sense of smell is very sensitive; if we continuously smell very strong scent which is too strong, our sense of smell becomes paralyzed or insensitive to subtle variations. Thus scent is very vague and difficult for us to identify its nature.

Despite such inherent difficulties, many attempts have been made to appreciate scent fully, to transform it into other senses, and to classify it. For example, perfumers memorize thousands of different aromas through visualization; and scales for classification of scent, like those of music, have been devised.

However, possibly due to the unstable nature of scents, few researches have turned them into numerical value and exploited them at secondary level. In our project, therefore, we aim to reexamine the nature of scent and pursue the possibility of extensive use of scent by performing “hanahana”.

In Japanese “hana” has dual meanings: the receptive organ ‘nose’ and a ‘flower’ emitting fragrance. The “hanahana”, a compound of the two “hana”s, visualizes temporal variations of scent by projecting on the wall a flower image which changes its size, color, and degree of transparency.

To enjoy “hanahana”, apply perfume to a leaf-shaped piece of paper “la mouillette” and attach it to the stalk in a vase. A flower image will then bloom on the silhouette of the stalk which is projected on the wall. The color and shape of the flower change in various ways according to the strength and sort of fragrance applied to the paper.

The audience can enjoy temporal variations of scent from the changing color and density of the flower. If “la mouillette” scent strength exceeds a certain level, silhouettes of insects and animals such as bees, butterflies, dogs and hummingbirds will appear around the flower as if they are lured by the fragrance.

“hanahana” can also bloom its own original flower, reacting not only to prepared scents but also to smells coming from the audience, such as perfume, food and halitosis. Thus, by watching the projections on the wall, the audience will re-recognize the existence of scent, which is always too vague for us to appreciate in our daily lives.

Technically speaking for real-time scent recognition, we utilize an array of scent sensors which is normally used for quantitative measurement in the fields of chemical experiments and production evaluation. This sensor can sample the air and measure the degree and strength of ambient scent in real time. By using multiple sensors, the system can also classify scents into groups. These data are transferred onto a computer, and the computer projects the image at real time (about 60 fps).

The possibilities of this work are unlimited and we think it could open up a new paradigm of interaction. The visualization of scent will change the surroundings of “hanahana” and lead us to a new recognition of space. In the future, we plan to expand our project by exploiting the scent device in various ways.