Transformation into a female shark — research project to develop a perfume alluring male sharks. W.I.P
Near yet far. Loving a person is bone-breaking. Even after explaining at length, even after appealing to the five senses and behavior, sometimes there is still no understanding. For example, I have a feeling that sometimes I can trust a dog more than a person. If people still can’t understand each other no matter what, it makes me want to connect with some living thing even more distant from human beings, one whose communication potential is unclear: A shark, for example.
Human X Shark/Ai Hasegawa (JP), Credits: Ai Hasegawa
Human X Shark/Ai Hasegawa (JP), Credits: Ai Hasegawa
As can be seen in the Japanese character for the word “shark,” sharks are fish but they also have organs of copulation and a variety of mating patterns. Furthermore, at least one species of shark can potentially utilize either sexual or parthenogenic reproduction.
Some say the future of biotechnology may allow humans, too, to have something like same-sex reproduction or parthenogenesis. Thus, for me, the shark is an appealing animal in the sense that it symbolizes “the wild-natured, strong woman fully utilizing future technology.” Here, to transform into a female shark, the challenge was to use special ingredients to create a fragrance alluring to a male shark.
Project Credits:
- Project team: This project is made for the collaboration project between Ai Hasegawa and Shiseido.
- Hiroko Ozeki (Shiseido Global Prestige Brand Operations,
- SHISEIDO Brand Unit)
- Kaori Inaba (Shiseido Global Innovation Center); Design advisor: Fujiwara Dai; Image video part: Naka Takato;
- Interview part: Masayuki Iigo (Utsunomiya University), Shizu Takeda (Hitachi), Kyoko Okita (Hitachi); Support: Culture department of Shiseido Company, Limited; JST ERATO Kawahara Project; T. Hasegawa Co. Ltd.; Hitachi, Ltd.; Beige Creative & Co., Inc.; Parima Taiebi (Shiseido Global Prestige Brand Operations, SHISEIDO Brand Unit)
Website:
Biography:
Ai Hasegawa (JP) uses art and design to present a solution to the challenges encountered in our daily lives. At the same time, the solution itself questions our perception of living in this world. Assistant researcher at MIT Media Lab, from 2014 to 2016. In 2017, became a special researcher at the University of Tokyo.
http://aihasegawa.info
