I MET USMAN ...
at the Veiled Works symposium in Oslo
22-23 October 2004.

Usman Haque designs interactive architecture systems and researches how people relate to each other and their spaces. He has created responsive projection environments, interactive installations, digital interface devices and choreographed performances. He is a former partner in architecture practice Pletts Haque and teaches at the Bartlett School of Architecture. He has been artist-in-residence at the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, Japan; a researcher at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Italy, and has also worked in USA, Malaysia and UK. His work has appeared at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), Ars Electronica (Austria), the Hillside Gallery (Tokyo), the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, National Maritime Museum, (Greenwich), Belluard Bollwerk International (Switzerland) and Fabrica gallery, (Brighton). He has presented at Doors of Perception, The Design Council London, OneDotZero, The Tate Modern and SIGGRAPH 2004, among others. His interactive and telecommunications projects have appeared in several magazines and journals including Archis, Art & Architecture, Science, Wired (online), Architects' Journal and RIBA Journal.

I was a great pleasure to meet Usman and hear him talk about his work. I was particularly interested in his work with smells in relation to my project, because up to that point, I was not really sure how I would deal with this sense, or even if I could afford to deal with it. After he presented his work, including an installation called "Scents of Space" where various aromas are triggered by the presence of people passing through space, I plucked up the courage to ask him about it.

I explained that I was building an Emotion Organ and my ideas for including various aromas that should be emitted with mood changes. He told me that all I would need were some aroma oils and some spray paint bottles. These bottles are relatively cheap, they have adjustable nozzles, and valves that can be opened and closed with very little pressure. To get the scent to flow out into the space he has used fans. if the temperature in the space is kept cool, then the various smells will stay in their own channels. If the air becomes warmer, then the scents are likely to travel less and become dispersed.

Thankyou Usman!

Usman's homepage is definately worth a visit:
http://www.haque.co.uk/