“Americans and Arabs live in different sensory worlds much of the time and do not use the same senses even to establish most of the distances maintained during conversations.” – EDWARD HALL Continue reading Breathing in different sensory worlds
Tag Archives: middle east
Syrians in Jordan: A community of refugees flowers in the desert
Ibrahim’s perfume stall in a Jordanian camp hosting Syrian refugees represents more than a business. It is also a small step towards building a community rooted in hope. We would like to learn more about Ibrahim’s endeavour. Please let him know! Continue reading Syrians in Jordan: A community of refugees flowers in the desert
AJ+ Segment & Al Jazeera Documentary about Oud
AJ+ Arabic has produced a brief segment about oud:
“The price per kilogram for one of the finest kinds of oud incense is $9 million! als does it smell?”
“80 Ferrari cars equal the price of this piece of wood, a very rare piece that weights 16 kilograms.
20 million dollars = 80 Ferrari cars!
If you owned it, you’d burn it. Don’t be amazed! This piece is one of the highest quality ouds called kinam.
There are many kinds of oud. It prices have risen rapidly due to the high demand on it in the past ten years.
The regions of the world that consume the most oud are: the Arab Gulf countries, China, and perfume-producing European countries.
The trees that produce out grow in southeast Asia.”
Al Jazeera has also produced a documentary titled “The Smoke of Goldâ€Â which examines oud as a social icon in the Arabian Gulf states, a symbol of hospitality and warmth, the smell of which is purported to chase away the blues. The documentary is filled with details and valuable information about this beguiling material and its methods of extraction and production. It charts its journey from India and Southeast Asia (Thailand and Malaysia), the only areas where the trees it’s extracted from grow, to France and Britain. The full documentary is available to watch online (in Arabic, without subtitles) on Al Jazeera Arabic YouTube channel: http://ajar.io/am5j
(Translated by Ashraf Osman)
Al Jazeera Documentary about Oud
AJ+ Arabic has produced a brief segment about oud: “The price per kilogram for one of the finest kinds of oud incense is $9 million! als does it smell?” Continue reading Al Jazeera Documentary about Oud
Scents of Exile
Scents of Exile is an olfactory art project curated by Ashraf Osman in partnership with Syndicate and Givaudan. It takes as its point of departure an evocative text about memory, identity and nostalgia associated with scents of cities and places no longer accessible, from In the Presence of Absence by renowned Arab poet Mahmoud Darwish.
Flower Power | REORIENT – Middle Eastern Arts and Culture Magazine
An excellent piece by Dana El Masri on “cities of jasmine, roses of beloveds: scent, identity, and culture in the Middle Eastâ€: Continue reading Flower Power | REORIENT – Middle Eastern Arts and Culture Magazine
Competing notions: high art, perfume & scent culture
This not so recent article from the Guardian demonstrates some of the ongoing confusion without addressing it directly: “From France to Dubai, scent is viewed as high art – but not in America. What is it about US’s relationship to smell that puts it so far behind in this field?”. Moreover, there are numerous subtle and open contradictions about art, perfume, & culture and a commitment to scent culture (the name we coined for our group): Continue reading Competing notions: high art, perfume & scent culture
‘You stink’: The fight to get rubbish off Beirut’s streets – BBC News
It’s seems the Arab Spring has finally reached Lebanon, and its trigger and slogan have been decidedly olfactory: #YouStink
Welcome to the Middle East, where smell can topple governments!
The Smell of Beirut
It’s seems the Arab Spring has finally reached Lebanon, and its trigger and slogan have been decidedly olfactory: #YouStink Continue reading The Smell of Beirut