Tag Archives: middle east

Breathing in different sensory worlds

“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

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?”

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“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 Gold” 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)

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.

Continue reading Scents of Exile

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