Han Yu Looking Outwards 10

Tega Brain is an Australian critical new media artist and provocateur as well as an environmental engineer. She is famous for creatively using information systems to present data, taking the form of online interventions  and experimental infrastructures. Brain is able to explore the strengths of multiple platforms and utilize them in eccentric engineering which intersects art, engineering and ecology.  She is currently an assistant professor teaching at Integrated Digital Media department of New York University. Her works are exhibited in a number of museums around the world. One of her works that I found most interesting is called Smell Dating, which is the world’s first smell based dating service that matches people based on feedback of smelling each other’s odor.

According to a number of research, it shows that smell is the most evocative experience by human and can be used to find links to a number of information such as age, gender and even predisposition to illness. Brain’s Smell Dating service invites people to trust their olfactory intuition and choose the other halves based on their smell signatures. In order to participate the service, people will need to exchange their worn smelly shirts which are designed by the smell dating team. They will receive random shirts by other participants and if both participants mutually liked the smell of each other, they will exchange phone numbers and ready to move on to the next stage of their relationships. I like how Brain can realize such a vague scientific connection between scent and romantic attractions into a project that is very practical and quantifiable.

Participants of Smell Dating.