A recent exhibition on perfumed objects and images provides the context for a few remarks on the role of flacons. Even after the finassage the catalogue deserves more attention.
Risky media buzz about scent
Marketing experts tell us that negative headlines get much more attention:
“The Art of Scent” 3.0 at Dubai
“The Art of Scent” curated by Chandler Burr at the Museum of Art & Design in New York in 2012 has been a major milestone in the recent history of scent culture. In an interview during the exhibition with Artforum Chandler Burr referred even to perfume (!) “as an artistic...
Smelling digital culture
Digital culture seems to epitomize a scentfree world. Information technologies are clean. The sense of smell seems to be the outsider of a digital world. Isn’t this part of the story we tell about progress and a postindustrial society?
Body odor impacting on other’s work performance
Human body odors can transfer anxiety-related signals. This is a well documented fact. Yet, it is an open question how these signals impact in real-life situations.
ArtBasel 2018: Wake up and smell the…
Art Basel offers a premier platform for renowned artists and galleries. The 49th edition brings together about 290 galleries from 35 countries and opened earlier this week. In fact, “art is now absolutely a consumer product, and that’s the huge difference. It’s a whole different world”, as Paula Cooper recently noted...
“The future will be like perfume”
Brian Eno altered the course of both pop and experimental music. He is now 70 years old. After leaving Roxy Music in 1973, he went on to become one of the most widely extolled producers of the late 20th century. He’s also become a legendary solo artist in his own right...
“Scent Culturalizing” the end of an industrial era
Germany will shut down its remaining black coal mines by the end of this year. This plan seals the fate of the sector that powered the country’s industrial revolution and post-war economic miracle. Since its early beginnings in the early 1970s this fundamental shift has had widespread implications the former...
Rotten eggs on the road?
A car is a means of transportation. This is obvious. What is less obvious however is that the car shows specific sensory or even olfactory qualities: A car uses smelly petrol or diesel. Driving a car even turns the vehicle into an openair-design machine. At the end of the day...
A sociology of smell
“Smell is in the nose of the smeller, but also in the culture of the smeller.” – ANTONY SYNNOTT
He suffered death and was buried
The entombment of Christ is one of several standard representations of Jesus’s suffering and death at the hands of the Romans. According to the Christian tradition Pontius Pilate granted Joseph of Arimathea permission to take Christ’s body down from the cross for burial. In addition, the gospel according to John...
Designing products for a new scent culture
The ongoing normalization of ambient scent creates a growing need for diffusers. In most cases diffusers convey some distinct atmosphere: it might be somehow esoteric or rather technical. But there are very few products we have seen so far that seem to resonate with current design culture.
When will there be a professor for olfaction & space? And where?
The University of Applied Sciences & Arts Hildesheim is looking for a new professor for “light & space” for its department of lighting design. Reflecting on the olfactory turn we slightly rewrote the official job opening:
Odorama on car smells at Mediamatic
We have been looking at cars as “olfactory artifact” for quite a while. In fact, the automobile sector is part of a larger interest in the aesthetic and experience economy.
Scents beyond conventional perfumery
There is a long lasting history of dealing with scent in pop music. More recently, Jeans for Jesus, a widely known player in the local pop music scene in Switzerland, made an interesting move:
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