first step, the perfume note:
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second step, the letter:
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third step, the smell:
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third step, the installation:
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second step, the letter:
third step, the smell:
third step, the installation:
what does mickey mouse smell like?
2018-2019 what does mickey mouse smell like? is a research project in which I imagine and speculate mickey mouse’s smell using video footages, found mickey mouse objects (including official merchandise or fan objects), private collections and personal memories.
first step:
I created a note for my imagined “authentic” mickey mouse perfume Eau de Mickey.
Top notes are based on the research I did from the video footages of Mickey Mouse cartoon. Middle notes are based on my imagination of the physical materiality of Mickey Mouse and existing Mickey Mouse mass produced perfumes. Base notes are my childhood memories.
second step:
In October 2018, I wrote to Mickey Mouse, asking “Dear Mickey, what do you smell like? Thank you!” I sent my letter to Dinsneyland. Around four weeks later, I got the reply from Disneyland, a generic postcard with Mickey Mouse family on one side and on other side with my address on it, which says: “Hi ya’ from your special pals! You pal, Mickey Mouse &Pals.”
Dear Mickey, what do you smell like?
2018
letter, envelope, post card from Disneyland, wood, found table frame
third step:
Based on the note I made, I established a “lab” in my studio. Using toy cooking utensils, I created my version of mickey mouse’s smell.
I then created an installation as “launch” for the smell I created, a perfume called Eau de Mickey. The installation was installed right in front of previous Carnegie Mellon University Doherty Hall air quality lab.
The installation includes four parts:
1- the perfume table (middle) : presenting the perfume I created on a table I made and a pizza table I collected and a vintage bottle I collected
2- the smell table (left side): presenting the raw material I used to create the perfume.
3- the research table (right side): presenting the footage where mickey mouse use ear spray on himself, my letter to Disney, asking what does mickey mouse smell like.
4-the tv station (lower right corner): showing a video about my video footage research.
Eau de Mickey
2018
found Mickey Mouse vintage bottle, perfume created from materials listed above in the notes, tiny plastic pizza table, wood, found IKEA furniture, found mickey mouse gloves