Cogito ergo sum is often regarded as the fundamental element of Western thought that laid the grounds for rationalism, scientific progress and modern dichotomies: I think, therefore I am. The title of this post is less well known: I sense therefore I am.
Do the captives actually smell the fire?
A few days ago, I happened to come across this visualization of Plato’s thought provoking Allegory of the Cave. What the captives see and hear are shadows cast be objects they do not see. But what about the fire?
Creating applications for little trees
Little Trees seem to be ubiquitous these days.
Olfactory demonstration
Tobacco smell is pretty marginalized these days. In many professions smokers are stigmatized. Public health is certainly an argument. Culturally, it is an extreme change compared to previous times. The new smoke-free is normalized.
Scent masquerade!
This iconic narrative from the Judeo-Christian tradition is full of olfactory references that are topical today:
New product scents
The Swiss retailer www.digitec.ch is currently running a thought provoking advertizing campaign. It is basically broadcasting what customers wrote about a product on the retailer’s website. This feedback needn’t be positive. It can be devastating. But it must be interesting. And in fact, the product scent – intended or accidental...
Re-odorizing & its normalization
The campaign aims at the general public. By now air care is normal! Stay updated and enter your email address to follow us!
Scent Culture Monitor
In 2015, we started Scent Culture News to shape and build scent culture as field. Following our mission we have highlighted and connected fragmented themes, ideas, references, and projects that relate to the sense of smell in culture, business and society. More recently, we made a pause and reflected on recurring...
Feedback
The campaign is a real thing in Switzerland right now. Stay updated and enter your email address to follow us!
Olfactory turn: Smellshots
A snapshot is a “casual photograph made typically by an amateur with a small handheld camera”. It is an “impression or view of something brief or transitory“. And what is a smellshot? Our new category smellshot aims at exploring this notion. Stay updated and enter your email address to follow us!...
Enchanting worlds
It was the social theorist Max Weber who identified progressive disenchantment as an underlying process of modernity. More recently, this creed of modern thinking has increasingly been challenged. Thus, enchantment often evokes the sublime and refers to an aura of authentic presence. Moreover, enchantment has been used as an analytical...
Smelly wheels: In search of alternatives
Visual representations of smell are one of the core themes of our presence on Instagram: Wheel, circle, and pie have recently appeared as recurring and influential visual metaphors. The fragrance wheel created by Michael Edwards is perhaps the most prominent example these days. But the history of visualizations demonstrates that...
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