Smell of a New Life (2026)

Mirror life research is the attempt to artificially recreate a biological system whose molecular structure is the mirror image — the complete reverse — of life as it exists in nature. All life on Earth, including ourselves, is fundamentally composed of left-handed amino acids and right-handed DNA double helices. Yet advances in synthetic biology have, as of 2025, driven rapid progress in research on "mirror polymerases" that replicate mirror-image DNA (left-handed helices), and on ribosomes capable of synthesizing mirror-image proteins. When these are integrated, a form of life that does not exist in nature — Mirror Life — could come into being. It promises not only a key to unlocking the mystery of life's origins, but also practical applications: materials that never decay, because existing viruses and degrading enzymes cannot act upon them, and the development of revolutionary pharmaceuticals.

At the same time, this technology carries existential risk. In December 2024, thirty-eight prominent biologists from Europe and the United States published an emergency statement in Science, calling for an immediate halt to mirror life research. Their concern is the prospect of an ultimate pandemic. Mirror life organisms would be invisible to natural immune systems and predators — fitting no existing lock — allowing them to pass undetected and potentially proliferate without control. They could become the ultimate invasive species, rewriting existing ecosystems in ways that cannot be undone. Is this recommendation a prudent ethical firewall, or a move in a geopolitical contest for technological dominance? Among scientists, debate continues: whether to accept a warning that could amount to a "death of science," and if accepted, where and how to draw the line. This exhibition presents a portion of that ongoing discussion in video.

As history has shown with nuclear power, gene editing, and artificial intelligence, once humanity has grasped a great power, competitive pressure makes it extraordinarily difficult to stop. If applying the brakes has already become unrealistic, how should we steer? Who will design the legal and ethical frameworks? This project is conceived as a set of construction lines — a guide for helping people who are not scientists to think, physically and sensorially, through the dilemma of a technology that holds scientific sublimity and planetary crisis in the same hand.

How can we perceive a mirror-image world that is visually indistinguishable from our own? The answer lies in smell. Human olfactory receptors possess the ability to distinguish the three-dimensional structure — the chirality — of chemical compounds, much like a key reading a lock. Working within constraints of budget and safety, and using whatever materials are available, this project attempts a mirror scent simulation: reconstructing, based on current chemical knowledge, the scents of a mirror lemon and a mirror chrysanthemum that might be realized a hundred years from now, as well as the body odor of a mirror human — a being that could never be created under present ethical standards.

⚠️ Visitor notice: This exhibition uses fragrance and light effects. Visitors who are sensitive to scent or light are advised to take care.