A note from Saskia Wilson-Brown
Founder and Exec. Director of the IAO
January 2, 2020
Dear friends,
We’re entering a new decade (and, soon, the second decade of the Institute for Art and Olfaction’s operations). With these new horizons, it feels like a great time to write a little note about how we’re doing, and where we’re going, here at the IAO.
2019 was a busy year for us! But that’s no change, really. Our team is multiplicitous in interests, outlooks, and capabilities; when we’re firing on all pistons, the collective energy can be simply astounding. Truly, I never imagined the IAO would get to be so… busy!
I founded the IAO in late 2012, at a time when there appeared to me to be precious few opportunities for the public to interact with perfumery, particularly on the West Coast of the US. In response to this dearth of opportunity, a handful of hard-working perfumers were offering classes in their own studios and labs. Along with my growing curiosity about the materiality and creative potential for scent, those perfumer/teachers started the spark that led me to create the IAO. Our mission was and remains relatively simple: we hope to increase access to the tools and knowledge of perfumery to anybody who wants to interact with scent as a creative practice.
We operate in three spheres: education, experimentation, and what I loosely call advocacy and/or community. By focusing on these areas, the IAO is capable of covering the majority of the potential applications for scent. From direct artist support to public programs, institutional partnerships to advanced technical blending education, we hope to provide a place for every idea to be explored without judgement, dogma, or – worse – pessimism.
What I am most proud of, however, is also in a way the most humble thing we offer: our weekly open sessions. These provide a loose and open-minded space for curious people to first discover the materials and knowledge of working with scent, in whatever way they see fit. Consider that our open sessions – operating with a commitment to open source information sharing – were the first of their kind (happily, there are more organizations offering this sort of programming, now) and have been running continuously since 2013. By a conservative estimate, the IAO has served as the first point of entry for upwards of 4,500 people interested in working with scent, through our open sessions alone. And let’s not get into the numbers if you count ALL our programs. I’ve occasionally gotten it into my head to try to add up how many people we’ve served. I always give up somewhere around November 2015.*
So… we’re doing our job, we’re making an impact, we’re providing opportunity. We’re initiating and producing programs and institutional partnerships to reach the public, as well as the international perfume community. We’re inviting thinkers and visionaries to teach, talk and collaborate. The big picture of all this activity is that we’re doing our part to foster change in access to the tools and knowledge of scent-making, and co-creating a cultural shift in how people engage with and think about perfumery. Through all the long hard years, the fears and the crises, we’ve managed to maintain a spirit of experimentation, an openness to new ideas, and a sense of humour. We’ve gained our own sort of expertise, yes, but have not become dogmatic, rigid, or exclusionary. Of this, I am very proud.
But, OK, let’s get real. We’ve also failed in some spaces. As an example: maintaining affordability can be challenging when the bills keep piling up. We’ve recently had a come-to-Jesus moment where we realized that we had better start adding more affordable programs if we’re to keep allowing for access. We’ve also failed to implement some of our best ideas… A representation survey (with our collaborator Mauricio Garcia) designed to initiate a long hard look at who is being included in perfumery, and who is not. An open source historical exploration of “olfactory art”… There are more.
These failures mainly have to do with energy. It can hard to carve out the mental space when the email inbox is overflowing and the floor needs a sweep. And then, sometimes it can feel like a battle to resist the low-level cynicism that repeated exposure and time can create in even the most optimistic of humans. For me, this is triggered in particular when I see that the quieter artists and thinkers of past years or decades are in danger of being eclipsed by louder voices, copied without attribution, or – worse – written out of the narrative, entirely. This, in part, is why I have been preoccupied these last years with creating a mechanism for sharing that serves to record the accomplishments of artists and thinkers in the field, while giving newcomers the opportunity to learn about (and do honor to) what came before. This mechanism – developing through the Open Sourcing Smell Culture program – will take the form of a public-access database, serving to provide a platform for research, opt-in information sharing, and the recording of projects, ideas, and formulas.
So… It’s all slower than I want, and harder than I thought. But the big picture for all of us at the IAO is that despite our successes and failures, we try never to forget that this hard, slow, grinding work is a privilege. The seven year mark is usually when most non-profits falter. As we continue into our 8th year of operation, I’m happy to say that we’re in good shape. We’re not rich, we’re not fancy, but we are surviving. Sometimes I think that maybe we’re even modestly thriving. The hard moments that we occasionally experience are a testament to the simple fact that we’re AROUND to experience them! Better a big challenge than a big nothing, right?
As we launch into 2020 and a new decade, we’re focusing on a few core things:
+ We’re continuing our work on the Open Sourcing Smell Culture program, and – to that end – will be doubling down on the focus and collaborations.
+ We’re launching a more streamlined and perfume-specific education program, that will be geared to people who want to learn how to make perfume, but – of course – with the IAO’s customary openness and diversity of approach (we’ll still offer our usual roster of classes in scent-related topics for all people. This new program will live alongside it!)
+ We’re launching our first Scent Week, in May 2020 in Los Angeles. This public-facing, week-long program will provide a wonderful opportunity for Angelenos and visitors to learn about the practitioners and ideas at work in the field of independent and experimental perfumery.
+ We’re producing our 7th annual Art and Olfaction Awards, in Los Angeles.
+ And, finally, we’re getting serious about survival by planning some organizational changes that will ensure the IAO’s survival past… me. More to be announced on this.
So, now, because I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished this year (and because I love a good list!), here’s a rather exhaustive look at 2019 Read on, if you care to. As always you can get in touch with me anytime at saskia@artandolfaction.com.
Sincerely,
Saskia
* The one thing that we can easily track is website views, and from 2012 to 2019, WordPress tells us that we’ve received 497,812 views on artandolfaction.com.
2019 HIGHLIGHTS!
Education
In 2019, we launched our certification program, while continuing to offer our open access programs such as Open Sessions, Perfume 101, Scent as Creative Practice, and other classes designed to allow anybody to work with scent, at any level of interest or understanding. We also focused increasingly on providing more nuts-and-bolts technical knowledge, with Ashley Eden Kessler’s accords classes and eleven week materials course, a health and safety class with Chris Rusak, a class about setting up an independent business with Jeffrey Dame, our bi-annual week-long intensives with Spyros Drosopoulos and special topics with Tim Van Ausdal and many more. We continued our Perfume Design Challenge program, led by our own Minetta Rogers, and — finally — we launched some repeating classes that are designed to help people with the brass tacks of setting up their own perfume laboratory: Perfume 202, and Perfume 303. Outside the IAO, we collaborated with institutions such as Eindhoven Design Academy, Royal College of Art and New Mexico Highlands University to provide scent education to their students, and gave introductory talks and sessions at arts institutions and colleges.
Experimentation
We explored topics as diverse as bio-hacking (with Elliot Roth), the scents of worship and trance (with J.W. Dotson), scented gaming (with Simon Niedenthal), quantum smelling (with Luca Turin), scenting the Bates Hotel (with Catherine Haley Epstein), and the scent histories of India (with James McHugh), Egypt (with Robyn Price and John Steele) and 18th century France (with Saskia Wilson-Brown). We worked with Color Factory to create a large-scale exhibition of scent and color in Houston called Chromaroma, and with dublab to create a perfumed “album” (more on that in 2020). We collaborated with SALT landscape architects to explore the aromas of a historic site in Los Angeles, collaborated with LACMA on scented tours of their exhibition ‘The Allure of Matter’, teamed up with Aspen Art Museum to create scent pairings with select paintings in their Etel Adnan exhibition, and started a collaboration with Ace Hotel New York to explore important meetings through time (more in 2020).
Advocacy + Community
We continued our work with the Art and Olfaction Awards (hosting them in May in Amsterdam), and produced our third annual Experimental Scent Summit in collaboration with Klara Ravat. We launched our partnership with GrowGood, serving their community of homeless men, women and veterans by hosting classes and planting a perfume garden. Finally, we continued our commitment to our Open Sourcing Smell Culture project by expanding upon our existing open source work with new formulas and a lot of behind the scenes conversations and research. More on that in 2020!
+ We keep a really good archive of our projects and programs: Check it out here.
+ You can also read some press highlights, here.
2019 PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS
ALL OUR EVENTS IN 2019
TECHNICAL PERFUMERY CLASSES
Naturals Intensive, with Jessica Hannah (Jan. 12 + 13, Oct. 5 + 6)
; Ambergris Accords, with Ashley Eden Kessler (Jan. 19)
; Winter School, with Spyros Drosopoulos (Jan. 21-26)
; Special Effects + Textures in Perfumery, with Spyros Drosopoulos (Jan. 27);
Fragrant Oils and Solid Perfume, with Tim Van Ausdal (Feb. 2, Mar. 22, Jul. 19);
Eleven Week Materials Course (module 2), with Ashley Eden Kessler (Feb. 5)
; DNA of Scent: Chypre + Mitsouko, with Ashley Eden Kessler (Feb. 9);
Incense and Smoke, with Ashley Eden Kessler (Mar. 2+3)
; The Technical Perfumer, with Chris Rusak (Feb. 28)
; Four Hour Accords: Violets, with Ashley Eden Kessler (Mar. 7);
Aromatic Smoking Blends, with Persephenie (Mar. 9)
; Scent as Creative Practice, with Saskia Wilson-Brown (Mar. 14)
; Narcissus and Paperwhite Accords, with Ashley Eden Kessler (Mar. 23)
; DNA of Jicky + Fougère Family with Ashley Eden Kessler (Apr. 6)
; Florals, level 1: Rose, Jasmine, Orange blossom, with Ashley Eden Kessler (Apr. 13+14);
Nerikoh Incense with Persephenie (Apr. 20)
; Intensive: New Skin Scents with Ashley Eden Kessler (May 18+19);
Fragrant Tincturing with Tim Van Ausdal (May 23)
; Tomato Leaf Accords with Ashley Eden Kessler (June 15)
; Summer School: Week Intensive, with Spyros Drosopoulos (Jun. 24-30);
Six-Week Candle Class, with Ashley Eden Kessler (Jul. 2);
Floral Accords Intensive, with Ashley Eden Kessler (Jul. 13)
; Mango Accords, with Ashley Eden Kessler (July 27)
; Cold Process Soap Making, with Tim Van Ausdal (Aug. 2)
; Sandalwood Accords, with Ashley Eden Kessler (Aug. 10)
; DNA of Perfume: Eau de Cologne, with Ashley Eden Kessler (Aug. 31);
Eleven Week Materials Course (module 3), with Ashley Eden Kessler (Sep. 10)
; Meet a Material: Smoke, with Ashley Eden Kessler (Oct. 17); Industrial Accords, with Ashley Eden Kessler (Nov. 9)
; Animals Gourmands, with Ashley Eden Kessler (Nov. 16)
; Meet a Material: Amber, with Ashley Eden Kessler (Dec. 3)
; Business and Practice Perfumery Intensive, with Ashley Eden Kessler and Saskia Wilson-Brown (Dec. 28)
RECURRING CLASSES
Open Sessions, with Tim Van Ausdal and Madeleine Stearns
; Perfume 101, with Tim Van Ausdal
; Perfume 202, with Ashley Eden Kessler (launched 2019)
; Perfume 303, with Ashley Eden Kessler (launched 2019)
; Foundations of Creative Perfumery, with Saskia Wilson-Brown;
Perfume Design Challenge, with Minetta Rogers (topics covered in 2019: Film noir, Camp and kitsch, poetry with Anne Boyer, collage with Alexa Gilweit, rock and hedonism, hip-hop with VéFROMLA)
COMMUNITY EVENTS, PARTNERSHIPS, EXHIBITIONS
Event: 6th annual Art and Olfaction Awards, at Oude Kerk, Amsterdam (May 2, 2019);
Event: Experimental Scent Summit, at NDSM, Amsterdam (May 4, 2019)
; Creative Collaboration/Exhibition: Alameda Heart Notes, with SALT Landscape architects, (June, 2019);
Collaboration: Perfume Garden, with GrowGood (ongoing)
; Creative Collaboration/Exhibition: Scent Pairings, Etel Adnan, with Aspen Museum of Art (July, 2019)
; Talk(s): The Allure of Matter / The Allure of Scent, at LACMA (Sep. – Oct., 2019)
; Exhibition: Scent + Collage Exhibition, with Alexa Gilweit, at Gallery 3308.5 (August, 2019)
; Talk: ‘Creative Practices with Scent’, at Other Art Fair (September, 2019)
; Talk: ‘Chemicals, Seduction, God’, at LA Fashion Festival (September, 2019);
Exhibition: Chromaroma, at Color Factory, Houston (September, 2019 – ongoing);
Podcast Taping: Tanaïs and Carmen Maria Machado in conversation for MALA podcast (Dec. 19);
Exhibition: Winter Tales, with Miriam Langer, at Currents New Media, Santa Fe NM (December 2019 – ongoing)
; Partnership: Scent-Making and Hollywood, with Atlas Obscura and Airbnb, with Minetta Rogers (Ongoing)
TALKS + SPECIAL TOPICS
Perfumery in Early India, with James McHugh (Jan. 10)
; Fragrant Witchcraft, with Tim Van Ausdal (Jan. 31)
; Love Smells in the Ancient World, with Saskia Wilson-Brown (Feb. 7)
; Meet + Greet: Bottles for Independent Perfumers, with Mark Loveday, Pochpac (Feb. 25);
Froth and Folly: Perfumery in 18th century France, with Saskia Wilson-Brown (Mar. 7, Sep. 9)
; Introduction to the Science of Scent, with Kai Proschan (Mar. 21)
; Scent as Creative Practice: Baba Yaga and storytelling, with Saskia Wilson-Brown (Apr. 15)
; The Sinful Scents of Dr. Faustus, with Daniel Krasofski (May 30)
; Spiritual Waters: Scent, Worship, Trance, with Dr. JW Dotson (Jun. 8)
; Tarot and Perfume, with Tim Van Ausdal + Madeleine Stearns (Jun. 18)
; Language of Aroma: Screening & Smelling Session, with Saskia Wilson-Brown (Jun. 23)
; Game Play and Scent, with Simon Niedenthal (Jul. 1)
; Esoteric Aromatherapy, with Dr. JW Dotson (Aug. 3)
; Agua Florida Blending Session, with Tim Van Ausdal (Aug. 30)
; Indie Perfume Strategies, with Jeffrey Dame (Sep. 13 + 15);
Intro to Astrology and Incense, with Tim Van Ausdal (Sep. 20)
; Night Queens, with JW Dotson (Oct. 4)
; Scenting the Bates Motel, with Catherine Haley Epstein (Oct. 3)
; Egyptian Smells, with Robyn Price (Nov. 7)
; Scent As Creative Practice, at Eindhoven Design Academy, with Saskia Wilson-Brown (May, Dec)
; Quantum Smelling, with Luca Turin (Dec. 12)
; Biohacking for Scent Creation, with Elliot Roth (Dec. 14 + 15)
HAPPY NEW YEAR: MAY 2020 BE YOUR BEST YEAR YET.