The (f)art of science

As even the occasional reader of this blog finds out, there is no pretentious highfalutin crap here.  I am genuinely interested in many aspects of life and the human condition, and I try to understand it in the simplest possible ways.  I even suggest to students all the time that the key is on understanding and articulating that understanding.  The rest is fluff.

An interest in the human condition includes everything from life to death.  Emotions, of course.  Work, heck yes.  Sex and shit, too.  Even sweat; after all, it is human to sweat, right?

Yep, sweat.

I even quoted an uncle who had a quick retort, as he always did, when my brother complained about sweating and the stink. "Tell me when the sweat smells like a perfume and I will collect a bottle of it," he said.  We laughed.

Of course, we know that sweat itself does not have any smell.  The bacteria in places like our armpits are the ones that create that odor, which apparently is like pheromones to some.

An artist who focuses on science has taken this to a whole new level.  Get this: He "worked on an elaborate scent-based art installation called “Labor” to recreate the odor many people associate with sweat and give audiences a new way to “see” and understand smell."

We try to understand the human condition in many different ways.

So, how did he approach this project?

There is an unusual laboratory in Helsinki, Finland, founded to host creative interdisciplinary practices called “bio-art.” As part of an artist’s residency, I worked at Biofilia at Aalto University to recreate the scent people associate with sweat. For inspiration and perspiration, I used myself as a laboratory subject, spending plenty of time in the legendary Finnish saunas.

How fascinating!

My research began by defining human skin bacteria associated with odors and learning how to grow them. The scientific literature is sparse, as much of this research is carried out by deodorant and antiperspirant industries, which often don’t publish their results.

I tell ya, it is hard work trying to understand the human condition.  One can, of course, live a life without ever examining it.  But, that does not appeal to me.

Next, I isolated my sweat by capturing bacteria from my armpits in sterile gauze, filtering it and incubating it in dozens of heat and atmospheric conditions. Then I designed a bioreactor, similar to fermenters that brew beer, except they are built to enable more varied types of biochemical reactions with microbes. Finally, I experimented with liquid cultures that encouraged bacteria to thrive and produce fragrant waste products.
The concept of my artwork “Labor” is that microorganisms create the “vulgar odors” of sweat

So, at this point you begin to wonder where the "art" is because he is describing a scientific process, right?  Here it comes:

The exhibit contains several large glass bioreactors, each populated with one of three strains of bacteria. The soup in each container produced the smell of sweat, odors that collected in a central glass enclosure where a white T-shirt hung. From there, the smell drifted into the room.

What a piece of installation art!

He ends with this:

It has been said that deep human attraction is often premised on our scents. If bacteria are responsible for our scent, then are we attracted to a person or their bacteria? Perhaps bacteria help steer human sexual selection and evolution.

I wonder what bacteria are there in Love Potion Number 9 ;)