Scent culture originates from religious life. Thus, references to religious practices, feasts & thoughts are a recurring theme in our posts. Today, 15 August, Christians celebrate the Assumption of Mary. It is a day abounding in histories of scent practices.
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Beyond Genius: Creativity in perfume-making
Perfume-making – without a doubt – is a creative practice. Yet, our understanding of creativity is often limited. We basically think about the outstanding achievements of a creative genius without exploring the practices and strategies that underlie their creative solutions.
This talk opens the blackbox of creativity: It will focus on empirical data from case study research in the niche perfume industry, and outline the aesthetic and sensual practices that enable creative solutions in perfume-making.
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Museum Tinguely’s “Belle Haleine: The Scent of Art” Interdisciplinary Symposium
Dressing for success – and scent?
The common slogan “dress for success” underlines the wide-held view that what you wear matters in everyday life. It originates in Erving Goffman’s studies on the social world as a stage. Accordingly, individuals interact as performers. In the context of management and organization studies this mode of interaction has later been labeled as “impression managementâ€. It is obvious that workplace attire is used to manage the impressions of others. Studies show that women are more interested in clothing and experience more “appearance labor†when compared to men.*
Fragrant Careers? The olfactory presentation of self at the workplace
Individuals who want to be successful in today’s career landscape have to go beyond solid performance and strong results; personal branding is an increasingly important factor as well. Impression management plays a key role in today’s professional world, and one’s olfactory appearance is an integral part thereof. Which strategies and intentions one wants to achieve with personal scent, however, have only been researched casually, at best, so far.
Thus, the leading German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, recently discussed the use of certain perfumes by representatives of a political youth organization. What message does a user of Tommy Hilfiger perfume want to convey? According to the FAZ this young politician wants to identify himself as a performance oriented achiever who spends his money on clothes that are distinctly designed for this social group.
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