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

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.

Continue reading Beyond Genius: Creativity in perfume-making

Beyond De-odorant & Scent-Marketing: The Sense of Smell at the Workplace

It is apparent that the sense of smell can hardly be switched off at the workplace. Yet, business and management research has only recently started to explore its relevance. A number of research and transfer projects have been conducted at Bern University of Applied Sciences. And there is an upcoming forum to share and discuss this topic. Continue reading Beyond De-odorant & Scent-Marketing: The Sense of Smell at the Workplace

Art Basel: Over-serving the Sense of Smell in Collecting Art

Once again, the most recent edition of Art Basel provided a fascinating journey through the remarkable highlights of 20th and 21st century. It was hardly surprising that the sensorium was focused on the visual. Yet, there is a little anecdote that connects nicely to other posts on the sense of smell in contemporary art worlds and our ongoing re-examination of the collection at Kunstmuseum Thun. Continue reading Art Basel: Over-serving the Sense of Smell in Collecting Art

Scent Culture Club: “Diary of Smells – Shards” & Samples Exchange

For the last Scent Culture Club gathering before the summer break, we will explore a work, “Diary of SmellsShards“, by Brazilian artist, Josely Carvalho. Continue reading Scent Culture Club: “Diary of Smells – Shards” & Samples Exchange

How Present is Scent Marketing?

Sensory and scent-marketing highlight how the sense of smell affects our everyday purchasing decisions. Accordingly, one expects an abundance of scented products in contemporary consumer culture. Yet, we can also witness an increasing awareness of multiple chemical sensitivities that might promote an opposite trend. This is the commercial context of a recent thesis submitted in the BBA International Program at Bern University of Applied Sciences by Jennifer Zwyer and supervised by Claus Noppeney: How prevalent is the sense of smell in today’s consumer culture? How prevalent are scented products on the shelf in supermarkets today? How openly is the olfactory status communicated to the consumer? Verbally? Visually?

Continue reading How Present is Scent Marketing?

Inhaling history and smelling the future | Caro Verbeek | TEDxGroningen

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g37Qe8Kriuo]

Maybe you don’t know how important scent has been over the course of history. Did you ever wonder why that is? Have we been neglecting one of our important senses? Can smell be part of art? Or promoting well being? Or influence our culture and society? According to Caro, a picture says a thousand words, but maybe a smell holds a thousand images.

Caro Verbeek is an art and smell historian, curator and author with a focus on modern, olfactory and tactile art. She is currently a PhD candidate at VU University with the project ‘In Search of Scents Lost – Reconstructing the Aromatic Heritage of the Avant-garde’. She teaches the course ‘The Other Senses’ at the Royal Academy of Arts (The Hague) and moderates the monthly ‘Odorama’-platorm at Mediamatic Amsterdam. She curated a show on olfactory art at Villa Rot (Germany) in 2015 and co-curated the Museumnight ‘Ruiken in het Rijks’ (Smelling at the Rijksmuseum) in 2012. She regularly does olfactory interventions at museums and universities worldwide. www.caroverbeek.nl

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more athttp://ted.com/tedx

Thought leadership, talks, workshops, cultural production & consulting in an experiential & aesthetic economy Bern, Zürich, Schweiz