“Our eyes are not easy to fool. Smelling is another matter.” – LEWIS THOMAS
DIY Perfumer
“The only qualification I have is a school certificate I was awarded at thirteen … I am self taught and have become who I am through encounters with people and individuals and, of course, with their work. ” – JEAN-CLAUDE ELLENA
Smells inform about life and death
“Smells are not decodable. Nor can they be inventoried, for no inventory of them can have either a beginning or an end. They ‘inform’ only about the most fundamental realities, about life and death, and they are pan of no significant dichotomies except perhaps that between life beginning and life...
“A stench beyond experience”
27 January is the day for everyone to remember the millions of people killed in the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. The Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 marks 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. On this day I take the liberty to...
Evocative power
“Odors are at once evocative and suggestive, redolent with significance.” ION M. LEWIS
Attention economy
“So we thought an odor couldn’t hurt” – MARTIN KIPPENBERGER
Temporary nature
“An everlasting fragrance is a paradox.” – THEODOR W. ADORNO
Smelling whiteness
“White privilege is not just ‘in the head.’ It also is ‘in’ the nose that smells, the back, neck, and other muscles that imperceptibly tighten with anxiety, and the eyes that see some but not all physical differences as significant.” – SHANNON SULLIVAN
Psychological irrelevance
“Taste, smell, as well as hunger, thirst, nausea, and other so-called ‘common’ sensations need not be touched on in this book, as almost nothing of psychological interest is known concerning them.” – WILLIAM JAMES
Rapport with the world
“Odours enable us to have an immediate and lively rapport with the world.” – CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS
Fragrant Christmas!
Oranges are native to China. In the late Middle Ages they were new to Europe. Andrea Mantegna was clearly aware of orange trees and their beautiful golden fruit when he created this fragrant image of the Holy Night, the Adoration of the Shepherds: The scene is set in an open...
Perfumer
“A perfumer is someone who masters the behaviour and the perception of volatile molecules by the nose and the brain.” – CHRISTOPHE LAUDAMIEL
Prix Photoforum 2019
“Durch Glas”, a project on the perception of scent by the Swiss-Canadian artist Christelle Boulé wins the Prix Photoforum 2019. The series of photographs will be exhibited at Photoforum Pasquart. Earlier this year another scent related work was ealier shown at Sillages, an exhibition devoted to olfaction as a theme...
Differences between smells are meaningless
“We do not discover the meaning of a smell by distinguishing it from other smells but by distinguishing contexts within which particular smells have a typical value.” – ALFRED GELL
Designing in a complex world
“Even if you could capture the smells, sounds, tastes, and feel of a place, digitize them, and send them down a wire, you’d still never get near the sensation of ‘being there’. Why? Because we humans are not so dumb. Our minds and our bodies are one intelligence.” – JOHN...
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