SmellSCAPES performance by Klara Ravat

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Amsterdam, art, blog, distillation, experience, fragrance, Franziska Josteit, In-Imitable, Klara Ravat, Mediamatic, multi-sensory, Odorama, perfume, perfumery, scent, smell

In line with last weeks post, I went to the Odorama session called Art + Distillation, and one of the speakers was Klara Ravat with an impressive olfactory performance.

2 women were laying on a podium, when an electronic voice told the audience to gather 11 people around each of the laying woman. “Go on your knees. Take the perfume that is standing in front of you and spray/ drop it on the closest skin-point. Smell. Come closer and smell again. What do you feel? What do you smell?”

I observed the audience and found some puzzled faces… quite funny… e.g. on the foot, on the hair etc. Btw: the perfums were distallation works from Klara, whereas one was the Scent of Amsterdam that we distilled last Saturday in the workshop (see previous post).

The intention of Klara was to break that barrier of personal contact and to actually come closer to each other.

Nice message for a sunny start of the week! Yours, Fran

PS: Photos by Stichting Mediamatics

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The Scent of Amsterdam – Distillation Workshop

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Amsterdam, art, artworks, blog, distillation, fragrance, Franziska Josteit, In-Imitable, Klara Ravat, Mediamatic, perfume, scent

Past Saturday, olfactory artist and performer Klara Ravat gave a workshop called The Scent of Amsterdam: Distilling Odors of an Urban Landscape. Over the course of 6 hours 12 participants (incl. me) collectively explored the neighbourhood of Mediamatic Biotoop, visited aromatic urban spaces and learned how to distill a scented memory of Amsterdam.

Those were our findings from the Scentwalk…

…cut into little pieces in order to give most scent once distilled. And then we set up the distiller:

Personally i thought the workshop was interesting for the connections plus for the experience. The participants came from multiple disciplines, and Klara Ravat creates media and odour artworks, installations and experimental films, which is also great to listen to!

Yours, Fran

Inhaling history and smelling the future

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Amsterdam, aroma, blog, Caro Verbeek, fragrance, Franziska Josteit, history, In-Imitable, Mediamatic, Odorama, perfume, PhD, Royal Academy of Arts, scent, smell, TED

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’-platform at Mediamatic Amsterdam.

Here is her TED talk about historical and futuristic smelling:

A picture says a thousand words, but maybe a smell holds a thousand images… Let’s stay curious! Yours, Fran

Do you smell blue? Synesthesia

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Amsterdam, Amy Toner, blog, Caro Verbeek, Cretien van Campen, Dana el Masri, Dr. Laura Speed, fragrance, Franziska Josteit, In-Imitable, Mediamatics, Odorama, perfume, scent

 

The 4th edition of Odorama, a scent event serie organized by Mediamatics in cooperation with Caro Verbeek, dealt this time with the fascinating topic of synesthesia.

Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who report a lifelong history of such experiences are known as synesthetes.

Dr. Cretien van Campen: He is best known for his work on synesthesia in art, and studies of perceived quality of life, in particular of how people with health problems perceive their living conditions in the context of health and social care services.

Dr. Laura Speed: Is there a linguistic interpretation for synesthesia? Dr. Laura Speed is researcher (psycho-linguistics) at the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen working on the linguistic explanation of synesthesia opposed to a genetic or cultural component.

Amy Toner is a choreographer that teaches children to dance according scents, so to say smell-movement synesthesia.

Smell performance “Bee-ing”

We smelled fragrances of Dana el Masri.

Have a good start into the week! Yours, Fran

 

 

Odorama and other smelly stories !?!

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Amsterdam, art, blog, Caro Verbeek, fragrance, Franziska Josteit, In-Imitable, Marit Mihklepp, Mediamatic, Odorama, olfactory, perfume, Peter De Cupere, scent

Last week i attended a smelly evening organized by Mediamatic Amsterdam. Odorama is a new program by Mediamatic in collaboration with Caro Verbeek, an art historian who is especially interested in the sense of smell. Odorama concerns everything that reaches and effects the nose. The program will explore olfactory art and design that is experimental and challenging, sometimes known and sometimes unknown.

Speakers of that evening: Peter de Cupere, Caro Verbeek, Marit Mihklepp

A very inspirational concept with interesting people in a cool atmosphere!

Next event to come (and join)! Yours, Fran

Organic Perfumery – the Abel story

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Abel, Amsterdam, cocktail, Foodhallen, Frances Shoemack, In-Imitable, Isaac Sinclair, New Zealand, perfume, perfumer, scent, vineyard, Vintage

I recently met the husband of the owner of the organic perfume brand called Abel in the Amsterdam Foodhallen. Frances Shoemack, a New Zealand woman working in the vineyards business, was searching for a new adventure and moved to Amsterdam (great decision btw).

Unable to find a stylish, nice organic fragrance she decided to create one herself. Well, not really herself, but with the help of perfumer Isaac Sinclair it became a true story!

Their fragrance is called Vintage ’13 and has a warm clove bud scent with hints of pepper, bergamot and sandalwood. Apparently its so organic and so natural that you might also spray the perfume on your cocktail according to the owner. The fragrance bar in Berlins’ Ritz Carlton uses it this way.

Samples to purchase

It’s time for Vintage my dear readers! Yours, Franziska

Perfumers talk with MariaLux

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Alessandro Gualtieri, Amsterdam, Annindriya, Fragrantica, In-Imitable, Lilian Driessen, MariaLux, Nasomatto, perfume, perfume lounge, scent

Before Christmas i went to a perfumers talk at the perfume lounge Annindriya‘s in Amsterdam. New niche brand MariaLux came to present her fragrances and invited us to have a chat. The brand is founded by the perfumer behind Nasomatto creations, Alessandro Gualtieri, and his wife, the Dutch fashion designer Lilian Driessen.

Lilian & me at Annindriya

Initially MariaLux started early 2012 offering three perfumes: Truly, Madly and Deeply. In the meantime she presented 2 new creations: Mogadess & Aramesh. [My personal favorite is Deeply – with its sweet heavy oriental amber note that i personally love!]

Lilian Driessen explains that MariaLux is her muse and her ideal alter ego: “Maria as virgin, mother, lover. Lux stands for light, luxury, and lust. The ‘L’ is me, Lilian Driessen, designer & creative director.”

If you have the chance to smell those lovely creations, go ahead!!! Enjoy your Sunday! Yours, Franziska