The Institute for Art and Olfaction fosters experimentation and access in the field of perfumery, olfactory art, and other expressions with scent.
Founded in September 2012 in Los Angeles, The Institute for Art and Olfaction is a 501(c)3 non-profit devoted to advancing public access to scent. We do this by initiating and supporting experimental projects with scent, by providing accessible education in our laboratory as well as in partnership with institutions and community groups, by curating art exhibitions that incorporate scent in our gallery, and by raising visibility for independent, artisan and experimental and artistic practices with scent as a whole. Through these efforts, we extend the world of scent beyond its traditional boundaries of appreciation and use.
Our Areas of Focus
Experimentation
We foster experimentation with scent through strategic cross-discipline projects, and by providing space for research and development in a well-stocked perfumers’ laboratory. Similarly, we facilitate innovative creative practices spanning science, technology and the popular and fine arts through project-based arts residency and research programs, and through special projects with partnering institutions.
Education
We create accessible, facts-based curriculum devoted to the science and technical knowledge with scent. By informing the public about the multiple strands of perfume history and of the social and scientific issues that impact the art form, we help emerging perfumers gain greater knowledge and skills. We provide this education through an ongoing series of classes, workshops and lectures, both in our experimental laboratory, with partner institutions and online. Our education is based on ideals borrowed from the open science movement: We hope to give creative people the tools to use and incorporate scent into their existing practices, from technology to storytelling, contemporary art, and more.
Advocacy
We advocate for people that are working independently within the art and perfume communities through ongoing creative residency programs, community-minded events such as the Experimental Scent Summit and the Biennial Scent Fair LA, ongoing media programs such as Perfume on the Radio, and through the annual Art and Olfaction Awards.
Exhibition
We support contemporary artists and creative practitioners who work with scent or the senses in our dedicated exhibition space and in partnership with other arts organizations.
Statement of Commitment
The Institute for Art and Olfaction was set up to create access to a field that had heretofore been inaccessible to the majority of humans on this planet (read our mission, here). Since we founded the non-profit in 2012, this inaccessibility has changed: more people are teaching, more information is online, and thanks to like-minded organizations around the world there is no shortage of access to information and materials.
However, there are still steep barriers to full representation in perfumery. These barriers are manifold, and complex, and include financial and cultural mechanisms of exclusion, including the perpetuation of a eurocentric version of perfume history.
On ample evidence in contemporary cultural artifacts, this myopic narrative about who makes perfume and what they look like creates the (false) cultural impression that perfumery is a mono-cultural field.
Moreover, the visual language that the perfume industry uses to explain itself to the public reflects a limited perception of who can and should enjoy scent. A quick Google search of perfume advertisements shows the intensity of this issue.
This visual output, when combined with deep social inequality and systematized racism, results an industry that is not representative of the multiplicity of our world; that consistently messages that it is exclusive, expensive, and European.
In addition to being damaging, discouraging, and our of step, this vision of perfume does not reflect the actual history of perfume as a practice. As countless academics and historians have shown through deliberate research, perfumery (which we at the IAO define as the intentional combination of aromatics for a pre-determined result) has been implemented in some form by all people, on all continents, across time.
Have a look at some of these links for a sense of the reality of how diverse this practice really is.
+ The aromatic culture of Sudan
+ A Himba perfume ceremony in Namibia
+ Japanese traditions of Kodo
+ History of fragrance in China
+ Scent culture in ancient Syria
+ History of scent and the Philistines
+ Scents used in Sioux traditions
+ Scent in India
The IAO was started to facilitate access for newcomers to the field, as well as voices that are not adequately represented in the current iteration of the perfume industry. A few things to know about us!
1. Our programs purposefully reflect the fact that diversity of practice, culture, language, geography, and more was the historical norm in the field of scent-making,
2. Our programs purposefully create avenues of inclusion that allows us to attain full representation in the contemporary field of perfumery. We are committed to creating an equitable field where the multiplicity of practices is equally met by the diversity of the practitioners.
3. We believe that helping to usher in change takes thoughtful, considered, long-term action.
Image: Google Search, June 2020