Research & Readings
To Burn, Forest, Fire
Katie Paterson
Katie Paterson’s To Burn, Forest, Fire (2021) was a project using scent to explore the topic of climate change's impact on nature. She explores the first-ever forest on Earth and the last forest in the age of climate change by recording the scent and releasing it through a burning bespoke incense stick. The artwork employs the senses to cultivate an intimate, intuitive experience that aims to transport participants through time as a reminder of the increasing levels of extinction caused by humanity.
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The research I did on this project expanded my knowledge of how a piece can convey a message without sound and visuals. The process of creating memory and experience can often speak louder than stunning visuals and echo. To Burn, Forest, Fire inspired me to explore more olfactory art and design, embedding scent into designs for better communication and idea expression.
Human Nosework Trainging
Yidan Kim
Yidan Kim’s Human Nosework Training aimed at bringing scent back up from its low priority in the scent hierarchy. She mentioned that in modern society, we often value visuals and sound effects heavier than smell. We are losing our way of recognizing numerous numbers of scents as we no longer rely on them for survival. However, the limit of scent is the limit of perception. How we define a specific scent is based on the memories and emotions that are tied to a certain smell.
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This research informed me on how human perception works when we are given information at first. It inspired me to conduct serval experiments, which involved the separation of senses, and creating an environment where the perception of understanding of that scent is specific to each individual. When conducting scent-based research experiments, I blocked out every sense other than our olfactory sense for more accurate and personal results.
Anamnesis
Otobong Nkanga
Otobong Nkanga is a Nigerian-born, Belgium-based artist whose work explores the relationship between Africa and the Western world, with a special focus on how minerals from sub-Saharan Africa are transported through various covert economies and transformed into desirable consumer objects. Her art piece, Anamnesis, is a free-standing white wall with an undulating river-like shape flowing around it. Recessed into the river are the spices most imported to Chicago, including cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, pepper, and vanilla.
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The artist used a combination of visuals and scents to communicate the message and emotions of their culture and history. It made me realize that when conveying a message through scent, it is not necessary to omit other sensory elements in the design. Illustrations and sound effects can help to prime the audience to reach the message through olfactory sensory. This inspired me to come up with the idea of mixing up illustrations and smells for a desired communication medium for my project.
Over 21
Christophe Laudamiel
The avant-garde perfume artist Christophe Laudamiel’s Over 21 is an olfactory performing art exhibition, which is aimed at audiences aged 21 or above. This solo exhibition will present scents designed to evoke complex and adult responses to topics of sex, addiction, taboos, and recreation. The exhibition invites viewers to sit at different stations around a long table and consume the scents as if one was participating in a meal. The artist sets the environment and atmosphere of a feast, symbolizing an area for enjoyment and pleasure, bringing visitors into a state of better understanding and mood.
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Serval research on olfactory art on their performing stage stresses the importance of priming their audience to a state of understanding the message with subtle clues and details, instead of straight up bringing out the message as plain visuals or voices. Since scents are attached to memories, how we perceive the message may vary from one to another.
A Child of Books
Sam Winston
Other than attending his workshop, I have researched Sam Winston’s work, as his design and artistic choices tie closely with sensory and perceptions. Sam Winston’s A Child of Books (2016) celebrates the power of stories. The part that fascinates me the most is the creation process of A Child of Books in different languages. The book in a way invites different designers and writers with different backgrounds to jump into the creating process, bringing in their touch while staying close to what the book intends to achieve.
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I hope to create an artefact that can also achieve a similar purpose that invites different creative minds to use the artefact as a mean to generate ideas and at the same time bring excitement and curiosity to the creative world.