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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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