Culturalizing Scent!

We have fleshed out some of the guiding ideas for Scent Culture Institute in our contribution to Designing with Smell: Designing with Smell: Practices, Techniques and Challenges - an impressive volumen honoring the work of Victoria Henshaw : Culturalizing scent! 

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Ingredient disclosures & stakeholder pluralism

The Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) Skin Deep Database is a prominent go-to for all things health when it comes to cosmetics. Last February, Unilever joined this fragrance disclosure scheme. Accordingly, Unilever announced a bold new initiative to provide detailed information on fragrance ingredients for all products in its multibillion-dollar portfolio of personal care brands, including Dove, Noxzema, Lever 2000 and NEXXUS. The announcement was characterized as a major move that could dramatically alter the personal care and fragrance markets.

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Smell matters in migration politics!

In the context of the ongoing controversy on migration politics in Germany, Thomas de Mazière, the Federal Minister of the Interior, joined the group of advocats of a Leitkultur: “Wir sind nicht Burka”. Continue reading Smell matters in migration politics!

How do you see scents?

The ephemeral materiality of scent eludes the conventions of visual representation. Instead, the specific sensory qualities of the sense of smell remind us of the many constraints of our snapshot society. Thus, one of the more recent projects initiated by Scent Culture Institute is an open collection of visual material that addresses the visual challenges of scent culture: How are scents rendered visual? This is the unterlying question of the insights (e.g. images, scetches, logos, posters, ads, snapshots, clips and pictures etc.) that we share on Instagram. Continue reading How do you see scents?

Thought leadership, talks, workshops, cultural production & consulting in an experiential & aesthetic economy Bern, Zürich, Schweiz