ALICE POTTS

Notions of the 'good' and the 'bad' re-discussing and re-valuate

The Greeks, Etruscans and Romans used strigils as a tool to clean the skin

Source: Pitt Rivers Museum Body Arts Sweat scrapers

The Urine Wheel was used for diagnosing diseases based on the color, smell, and taste of the patient's urine in the early 16th century: Many diseases affect metabolism and many changes in metabolism can be detected in the urine.

Now scientists use chemical analysis.

PROCESS

DESIGN DIRECTION 1

Apocrine = more milky fluid and it's the bacterial breakdown of apocrine sweat that produces the most odors. Bacteria that produce pungent odor;

-Staphylococcus
-Corynebacterium
-Propionibacterium

Eccrine = Mainly salt and water

What I find interesting about this project is that he uses his own body to grow these plants. This designer used his own hair as soil, his urine as fertilizer and his sweat to create salt.

The 'materials' that are seen as a waste product from our bodies are used.

SINAE KIM

The designer used human urine to make glazes for ceramics. The forms of the vases are based on the human bladder.

LIST OF PARTNERS

SWEAT SCRAPERS

SWEAT GLANDS

SWEAT

SWEAT COLLECTING PADS

Idea 1; sweat collecting pads that you can wear during the day. The idea is that the pad is double-sided and on the inside there are small openings where sweat can be captured. I do doubt if it can work.

Idea 2; A variation on the menstruation cup. Perhaps this could work for the armpits as well with an elastic band connected to it. As you can see with idea 1. ---> Drawing + model I have yet to make

ARTIFICIAL SWEAT

Companies use artificial sweat to test their products. The clothing industry use it for the test the quality of their fabrics. How long can you wear the fabric without seeing sweat stains on it etc.

Jewelry companies use it to test if their necklaces etc are not discoloring.

WORKSHOP ONE

URINE

URINE WHEEL

ECCRINE SWEAT GLAND

APOCRINE SWEAT GLAND

DEODORANT TESTING

THIEU CUSTERS

For the past half year I have been researching the role of smell in relation to cleanliness. The fear of smelling bad and hiding our biological nature is a major preoccupation of the Westerns while sweating and producing our own unique body odors can reveal a lot of important information about who we are…. The information that our bodies are communicating through our body odor is an amazing function of our bodies so how did hiding our biological nature become a matter of social acceptance? And how can I transform these preconceptions of our bodily fluids through design.

In my design project I would like to find possibilities that highlight and transforms the way we perceive body odor/sweat. How to address an issue like this without people immediately falling into the same pattern and thinking it's dirty and unacceptable. How to translate the capability of this bodily fluid?

HOW TO DESIGN A WORKSHOP?

The first workshop I did was a success. I did not expect that almost everyone wanted to participate. In the short time I had for preparation, it went well and the participants' reactions were helpful.

Many people didn't mind at all as much as they had thought beforehand. It was also interesting to see how seriously everyone took it.

One important question that I took from the experiment was; How to design the whole process? From the beginning (e-mail) to the end. What steps do you have to take?