Olfactory art is somewhat uncommon. However, there is something intoxicating about the idea – humans have become fascinated by searching for heady scents – from ambergris to musk. Quite often, the most intoxicating smells seem to come from the most unsavoury sources – whale vomit (ambergris) and musk – secretions from mammalian scent glands.
It seems we value our visual and auditory senses more highly when considering art – during the performances, an artist from Kyoto Saga mentions how smell is acknowledged, then dropped immediately. We don’t really consider how subjective our experience of scent may be. According to this Ted talk, 75% of people can’t detect an unusual smell in urine after the consumption of asparagus. http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-do-we-smell-rose-eveleth
There seems to be a whole world of untapped potential in the specific world of smells.
I very much enjoyed smelling the sandalwood incense and learning about Kōdō – the specific ceremony. The whole experience was intoxicating. The performance piece and interactive elements involved in the artwork documented below contained a sense of tension – spectators watched as they waited for the participants to drop pink or white flowers. Dropping a red flower would signal that the participant found a certain aroma sexually exciting. It turned out that nobody dropped a red flower. During conversation with people about the performance, one spectator noted that the interpretation of pink or red as sexual and white as pure was somewhat outdated, and that for perfume adverts, this dichotomy was almost always echoed. It is reminiscent of the blue for a boy and pink for a girl gender myth.
The Open Studio was a worthwhile event. I had many interesting conversations and have a lot of reading to do.
I was spoken to about SQUIDS (are the basis of MEG http://organizations.utep.edu/portals/1475/nagel_bat.pdf
A SQUID is a very sensitive magnetometer used to measure extremely subtle magnetic fields… I want to see how I can incorporate this idea into my work.
www.bbk.ac.uk/science/psychology/our-staff/adam-taylor-tierney
Dr Adam Taylor Tierney — Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London
I also want to research Adam Taylor Tierney a bit more:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSkzURJ3y_Y
Journal of Pedagogic Development: https://journals.beds.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/jpd/article/view/320/500
I also found out about stochastic processes in relation to my work, and the matter of Monte Carlo models and statistical corrections for gyroscopic motion.
