Maki Ueda

Olfactory Artist Maki Ueda considers smell to be “new media". As an artist, she is interested in the possibility for fewer visuals that can create stronger olfactory experiences. She often uses scents to spark the imagination or to create perceptual confusion. Combining chemical and kitchen skills, in her work, she extracts the scents of daily life, including foods, ambient aromas, and bodily scents.

For Mediamatic Maki created Dew of Afghanistan, a perfume inspired by a fellow immigrant: an Afghan feminist whom Maki met on a civic integration course. The perfume was developed for our sensuous game around city planning; Het Parfum.

Maki Ueda studied media art under Masaki Fujihata at The Environmental Information Department (B.A. 1997, M.A. 1999), Keio University, Japan. She received a grant from the Japanese government in 2000 and from the POLA Art Foundation in 2007. She has been based in The Netherlands since 2002. Nominated for The World Technology Awards Category: Art (NY, USA) in 2009, she occasionally teaches and gives workshops on olfactory art at ArtScience Interfaculty of The Royal Academy of Art and Royal Conservatory The Hague (NL), and at Willem de Kooning Art Academy (NL). Recently, Maki Ueda's Olfactory Games became a finalist for the 2018 Art and Olfaction Awards.