ESS, 2020

The Institute for Art and Olfaction and Klara Ravat (Smell Lab) to present the fourth annual Experimental Scent Summit

The Experimental Scent Summit is an annual event that takes the form of informal talks, round tables and workshops relating to experimental practices with scent. A relaxed and conversational meeting of olfactory artists, perfumers, culture theorists, writers and more, the summit is an environment where participants can share their work and discuss their issues in an open and unrestrained environment.

Over four days in July, 2020, the brightest minds working with scent shared their scent practices online, in a public program devoted to furthering experimental practices and thinking in olfactory culture.

 

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WATCH THE TALKS!

 

 

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SPEAKERS

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Bhatupe Mhango-Chipanta
Aromatic Oil Extraction in Malawi

Btahupe shares the work she’s been doing with Baobab extraction and social enterprise in Malawi.

Bhatupe is the founder of Bha’s Fragrance Boutique in Malawi, a company creating high-quality fragrance products, including perfume, body oils and aromatic scented items. The company also provides fragrance consultation to clients, training them on body chemistry, perfumery and giving general tips on perfume. Bhatupe was born in Malawi and grew up in Mozambique and Zambia. She has worked for the UN and other international organizations and went on to earn an MBA in San Francisco before launching her entrepreneurial ventures.
Learn more at www.bubybhatupe.com.

 

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Chavalia Mwamba
The Creation Of Scent Music: A Musician’s Perspective On The Olfactory Process

Scent is often likened to that of a [hopefully] beautifully composed song. The “words” are the notes used and the instruments are the various individuals who enjoy wearing each song. Perfumer and musician Chavalia Mwamba shares her creative process and how she approaches fragrance creation from a musician’s point of view.

Chavalia was born a creative individual with a grand imagination and a love for the outdoors – mainly because she could satiate all of her senses – particularly her sense of smell. Raised around berry bushes, pine trees and a pond, she was always surrounded by nature’s perfume. Although an educator, her love for perfumery and fragrance began to crave her attention for more pursuit. She found herself researching and reading about everything related to scent. This rekindled passion motivated her to want to speak with others about what she’d been reading. As destiny would have it, in her conversations, she was met with the need her brand Pink MahogHany was to fulfill –provide a collection with people like herself (an artistic, yet conscious consumer) in the forefront of her mind. Little did she know she would end up expanding her collection to include products for mental clarity, due to losing her 3rd born son shortly after birth in 2018. Pink MahogHany has become much larger than Chavalia and the people and businesses that are served. It’s now also about her own healing through fragrance. Chavalia resides in Longview, Texas by way of Dallas after 14 years and is a mother of 5-year-old identical twin boys.
More information at www.pinkmahoghany.com

 

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Clara Muller
Environmental Enmeshments

This talk will explore how olfactory artworks can address the pollution of air and water and overcome the main challenges of environmental communication by weaving together bodies and ecologies. They say an image is worth a thousand words. Might a scent be worth a thousand images?

Curator, critic and art historian with a background in literature, Clara Muller is pursuing research on the politics of breathing in contemporary art, and the diversity of art practices using scent as a medium. She has been a writer for the French olfactory magazine NEZ since 2016.
More information at https://www.nez-larevue.fr/author/cmuller/

 

 

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Deji Bryce Olukotun
Speculative Thinking with Scent

Deji joins us to discuss the possibilities for scent in the field of science fiction, drawing from his own work and other seminal sci-fi texts.

Deji Bryce Olukotun is the author of two novels and his fiction has appeared in five different book collections. His novel After the Flare won the 2018 Philip K. Dick special citation award, and was chosen as one of the best books of 2017 by The Guardian, The Washington Post, Syfy.com, Tor.com, Kirkus Reviews, among others. His novel Nigerians in Space, a thriller about brain drain from Africa, was published by Unnamed Press in 2014.  He is currently the Head of Social Impact at the audio technology company Sonos and a Future Tense Fellow at New America.
More information at returnofthedeji.com

 

 

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Devon Baur
Perfume For Avatars

How can smell influence our impression of the strangers we meet in virtual spaces? In the current socially distanced and digitally mediated world, this question might be more important than ever. Perfume for Avatars is a multidisciplinary art and research project that explores how smell can shape first impressions in multisensory VR storytelling.

Devon’s career has been dedicated to the interplay of art and technology. She is currently working on a PhD in Theater and Performance Studies at UCLA, studying immersive technologies in live performance. She also continues to work as an artist and researcher at Stanford’s Electrical Engineering department, where she explores multisensory storytelling in virtual spaces. Prior to this, she worked in the VR/AR industry for over half a decade as both a curator and producer. Most notably, she produced the award-winning Tree VR, which toured to over 90 festivals including Tribeca Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, and twice to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

 

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Elliot Roth
Biotechnical Basis of Scent

Elliot joins us to explain the basics of biotechnology – and how biotech can be harnessed for molecule production in the perfume industry.

Elliot Roth has a degree in biomedical engineering. Trained at the Stanford d.school, he studied synthetic biology for 12 years, and worked for five years as a product consultant. He founded seven startups, built five laboratories and two nonprofits, and raised over $1,000,000 for various organizations. Creator of the nonprofit DIYbio laboratory Indie Lab, he has spoken at SXSW and SynBioBeta on the topic of social impact and food. He is a recipient of awards from the World Food Programme, the National Science Foundation, and numerous other organizations, and holds fellowships from the Kairos Society, Future Founders, and the Seasteading Institute. He has a special interest in using simple biological design to solve physiological needs.
More information at thatmre.com.

 

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Erica So
Project Presentation: Faa1 Leoi6 (Experimental Scents for Protesters)
This talk is made possible through the support of the Royal College of Art, and IFF

Faa1 Leoi6 is a set of protest fragrances with three applications. The name uses the transliteration of Cantonese , and means “Flower Tear”. It symbolises Erica’s love for her hometown, Hong Kong; it’s cultural and historical beauty and the anxiety and sadness due to the recent political situation. With Faa1 Leoi6, Erica wanted to create a scent that allows people to experience the beauty of the culture, the violence of the politics and the feeling of tension. In this talk, Erica will present the project and discuss the challenges of working with scent to support protest.

Erica So is a knitwear designer graduated from Central Saint Martins (BA Fashion) and Royal College of Art (MA Fashion) with seven years of working experience in both London and Hong Kong. Her personal practice and dissertation are all inspired by Hong Kong’s culture and identity, combined with non-traditional mixed-media knitting techniques to create couture knitwear. During her life in London, she has gained several opportunities and awards such as: the UPW (HK) Sponsorship, Championship of the Porsche Design, The Last Mile Competition, Championship and the Most Sustainable Award of the Kering Group project, and has been a finalist of the IFF fragrance design project. Her dissertation, titled Hong Kong and Fashion: A Cultural History of the Hong Kong Undershirt, has also obtained distinction in her Master of Art degree.

 

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Frederik Duerinck
Artificial Intelligence in Scent

Algorithmic Perfumery is an experience that re-imagines that art and science of scent creation. The core of the system is a futuristic sensory machine that uses algorithms to create the most singular personal perfumes. Learn about the challenges and vision for this technology that opens a new path in perfumery.

Frederik Duerinck (NL) is a filmmaker and artist located in Breda. He is the lead designer of the award-winning multisensory installation Famous Deaths and is co-author of the book Sense of Smell. In his work, he researches the boundaries of conventional storytelling, creating embodied narratives. His most recent work, Algorithmic Perfumery, was rewarded with the Septimus Piesse Visionary Award 2019 by the Art & Olfaction Institute, the Docfest Alternate Realities Audience Award 2019 and received a Honory Mention at Ars Electronica 2020 Interactive Art +. Since 2018 Frederik is running his start up Scentronix focused on further developing Algorithmic Perfumery.
More at algorithmicperfumery.com

 

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Glenn Davis
The role of Collectors and Reviewers in Fragrance Community

Collectors and reviewers have an increasingly important role in the life of a brand. In this talk, Glenn Davis explores the importance and responsibilities of online reviewers, and their larger impact on the fragrance community, drawing from his experience and deep commitment to the field.

Glenn Davis, moniker mrcologne76, is a perfume connoisseur and brand ambassador for the perfume industry who connects fragrance enthusiasts with emerging and established brands. An Instagram savant, he provides his social media following with well-curated photos, analyses of perfumes notes, and interviews with industry professionals through his two groundbreaking programs Scent Provoking Sunday and Scenter Stage. Now recognized as a leading, credible, and trusted voice in the fragrance community, perfume retailers are soliciting him to do product reviews and sample giveaways. He also served as a guest contributor and social media representative at perfume tradeshows for esteemed online blogs like CafleurBon. Glenn’s multipronged approach packaged with his professional, knowledgeable, and smooth island-style has resulted in mrcologne76 becoming a master influencer. A polished and generous agent of change, mrcologne76’s profile continues to grow in popularity. When he is not inspiring the world to have “good smelling days”, Glenn is a US Navy veteran who has flourished as a perioperative nurse at multiple military installations and hospitals. Equipped with a smorgasbord of professional and life skills, Glenn Davis is the real deal and simply put, a timely game changer for the fragrance community.
Learn more at https://www.mrcologne76.com

 

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Hsuan L. Hsu
Decolonizing Smell

The talk explores how Indigenous people have experienced and responded to the olfactory transformations brought about by colonialism. I’ll begin by discussing how colonial education devalued Indigenous modes of olfactory knowledge and relation, and how colonial wars, industry, and ecologies transformed Indigenous smellscapes. Then I’ll shift to the work of two authors who present pathways for olfactory decolonization: the Kanaka-Maoli (Hawaiian) poet Haunani-Kay Trask and the Potawatomi plant scientist and memoirist, Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Hsuan L. Hsu is a professor of English at the University of California, Davis and author of The Smell of Risk: Environmental Disparities and Olfactory Aesthetics, which will be published by NYU Press later this year.
More information at https://english.ucdavis.edu/people/hlhsu

 

 

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Dr. Jacquelyn Ford Morie
Building Scent into VR Worlds

Jackie shares an overview of efforts to incorporate scent into virtual reality – from the nineties to today.

With degrees in both art and computer science, Dr. Morie has 25 years experience in developing innovative techniques for rich, emotionally evocative virtual reality (VR) environments. As part of this pioneering work, she invented a scent collar to bring the emotional power of smell to immersive experiences, and developed new types of functions for VR, such as connections to multiple sensor and feedback systems to make VR more effective. Dr. Morie spent 13 years as a Sr. Research Scientist at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), which she helped found. While there, she created novel VR telehealth care activities using her deep understanding of art, computer animation and human behavior to enhance patient engagement with these programs. In the mid-1990s, Dr. Morie started comprehensive computer animation training programs at Walt Disney Feature Animation combining art and technology topics, which she later expanded to the special effects industries at studios such as Rhythm and Hues. Prior to that, Morie worked at UCF’s Institute for Simulation and Training, where she developed techniques to make VR environments more immersive and emotionally compelling, and helped lead a group of innovative students called The Toy Scouts. She has been expanding her VR research to include neuroscience and avatars, developing methods to determine how such technologies can effect positive change in those who use them.
More information at alltheseworldsllc.com

 

 

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John Biebel
Developing Scent Through Verbalization

John discusses challenges when speaking and writing about scent, while covering methods for expanding our olfactory-verbal capacities.

John Biebel is a perfumer and creator at January Scent Project. He received his BFA from The Cooper Union in New York City where he studied painting and photography. He currently splits his time between user experience design for education software, writing for Fragrantica, painting, and making perfume.
More information at http://www.januaryscent.com, http://www.johnbiebel.com

 

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Josely Carvalho
Project Presentation: Open Diary of Images and Smells

Brasilian artist Josely Carvalho shares a brief presentation of two of the 20 smell/memories created for the collection of military cannons at the National Museum of History in Rio de Janeiro. A dialogue orchestrated by smell as a connector of artist, public and Brazilian history. Some of the smells are Fear; Invasion; Death; Delirium; Affection; Absence; Cannon Ball.
More information at https://www.joselycarvalho.com/

 

 

 

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J.W. Dotson, MD
The Devil’s Dream Chamber

Count Robert de Montesquiou, author of “Le Chef des odeurs suaves,” reigned over fin-de-siecle Paris with his dandified salons featuring symbolic perfumes, seances and music. His hyperaestheticism was the inspiration for J. K. Huysmans’ decadent novel Against Nature and his philosophy was reborn in the psychedelic era with satanist Anton LaVey’s concept of “Total Environments” which advocate the creation of artificial personal spaces that use theatrical sensory materials to cultivate nostalgia as an occult tool. We will discuss the use of a scented sanctum as a means for creative isolation and reverie.

James is a psychiatrist with a fascination for the strange borderlands of fragrance. His interests include ethnobotany, alchemy, classical astrology, and archaic and traditional medicine. He has been a perfume blogger at Sniffapalooza Magazine and is the first recipient of the Now Smell This “ Le Prix Eau Faux” award (2008).
More information at www.uncannyscents.com.

 

 

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Kaya Sorhaindo
New Models for Scent Articulation + Visualization

By using “Scent as a medium” for artistic creation and expression, Kaya’s cross-disciplinary projects seek to deepen the emotional and kinesthetic experience of art over a range of creative practices. With over 15 years experience as a Creative Director working in the fields of fashion, art, beauty, and publishing, Kaya is the founder and creative director of Folie À Plusieurs. In 2013, the first collection under Folie À Plusieurs evolved from “Le Cinéma Olfactif”; an ongoing film program developed exclusively for the Soho House Group cinema’s in Berlin, London, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. In collaboration with the perfumer Mark Buxton, over the next 5 years he would develop 20 unique fragrances in response to specific moments in contemporary and cult classic films, including The Lobster, La Haine, Mood Indigo, Love Exposure, The Virgin Suicides, Enter The Void, The Duke of Burgundy, Blow Up, Funeral Parade of Roses, Holy Motors and La Grande Bellezza.
More information at https://folie.space

 

 

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Lakenda Wallace
Project Presentation: Modern Peasant Beauty

Modern Peasant is a natural perfume and personal care product brand created by Lakenda Wallace. With perfumes inspired by the iconic scents associated with the 1950’s–Detchema and Chanel–Modern Peasant brings the fragrant essence of the garden to new, delicious heights.These small-batch, artisan perfumes, room sprays, and personal sanitizers salute the wonder and beauty of useful plants.
More information at https://www.modernpeasantbeauty.com/

 

 

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Mauricio Garcia
Fragrant Witchcraft

Perfume, a word meaning “through smoke,” has had a vital role in ritual, spiritual traditions and magical systems through the entirety of human history. During this talk, Mauricio will discuss how his work exists at a crossroads of  animistic spirituality, metaphysics and perfumery, including how fragrances created as vessels, talismans, anointments, enchantments and conjurations serve as magical objects through which we can reshape our internal and external realities.

Mauricio Garcia is a perfumer and certified aromatherapist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through Herbcraft Perfumery, Mauricio teaches classes and workshops on aromatherapy, perfumery, botanical folklore and witchcraft, as well as formulates bespoke products and fragrances for individuals and indie brands. Mauricio is also co-founder of the Coalition of Sustainable Perfumery and founding team member at the Ministry of Scent.
More information at https://www.herbcraftperfumery.com/

 

 

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Nadjib Achaibou
Creating perfume in times of crisis.

Since 2016, the perfume industry has been in crisis. From the tragic explosion of many chemical factories to climate change, our paradigms changed in front of our noses. Covid forced the world to change and influenced of how we think and create perfume. We became an essential Industry, helping us feel clean and safe, but also comforting us through pleasant memories.  Crisis is a trend setter.

From Algerian heritage, born in France and having grown up in Mexico, Nadjib is a perfumer working for Symrise in Mexico City. He started his training in Paris and London, opened a perfume factory in Singapore and now creates soap, detergents and creams for the whole of Latin America. Industrial perfumer during the day, at night he explores how scent can tell stories in teatre, and instrument in a concert, or a painting in a Museum. He feeds on both worlds to whisper in people’s noses the fresh notes of clean lavender or the brutal scent of the amazon burning.
More information at www.symrise.com.

 

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Regina Mamou and Lara Salmon
Project Presentation: Common Fantasy

As the artistic collaborative Research for the Bermuda Triangle (RBT), Regina Mamou and Lara Salmon use scent to investigate nuanced issues. Regina and Lara will discuss their upcoming project Common Fantasy at the Wende Museum of the Cold War in Los Angeles, California. For this project, RBT tinctures various objects from the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) to create a scent reminiscent of this era. Common Fantasy will come together as both a fragrance and installation at the Wende Museum.
More information at http://www.researchbermudatriangle.xyz

 

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Robyn Price
The Feel of Scent in Ancient Egypt

Sensory experience in Ancient Egypt was conceptualized differently from the cognitive models popularized by Descartes and popular today. It is possible to perceive this difference by exploring how scent contributed to the organization and maintenance of Ancient Egyptian society. For example, unlike today where hygiene and cleanliness often are associated with dryness and sterility, the ancient Egyptians found sweet scented oils and unguents to be the most effective means of purifying spaces through their invocation of divine presence. In my talk, I will discuss how the ancient Egyptians conceived these sweet scents as indicators of divine presence, as well as share some of the implications of these beliefs.

Robyn Price is a PhD Candidate in the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has participated in archaeological excavations in many countries, including: Cyprus, Israel, Spain, Egypt, Ethiopia, and in the US. Her interests include understanding how sensory experience, particularly that of smell, functions as an organizing factor in society, and with her research she seeks to humanize the past, working to make it more accessible and relevant to modern peoples. She has MA degrees from the University of Virginia and the University of Memphis in Linguistic Anthropology and Egyptian Art and Archaeology, respectively.
More information at dal.ucla.edu/robynprice/

 

 

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Robert Berryman
Synesthetic Healing

In this talk, synesthetic healer Robert Berryman shares his pioneering work in the field of multi-sensory healing. More information to follow.

Since receiving his Massage Therapy certificate from the Massage School of Santa Monica in 1994, Robert Berryman has received advanced training in various bodywork techniques (including Deep Tissue, Shiatsu and aromatic massage), with a pioneering focus on synesthetic healing. Since 1999, Robert has devoted himself to his company Zyanya Aromatherapy, and to his private bodywork practice in Los Angeles, with a clientele that includes celebrities, entertainment industry executives, and healthcare professionals.  Building upon his experience leading the massage department at Burke Williams Spa, Robert has developed a healing methodology that encompasses a holistic view of the human in the world. His reverence for the powers of essential oils, his understanding of the impact of light and his work with sound have led him to pioneer a synesthetic approach to healing.
More information at https://www.zyanya.com/
Photo credit: Debo Simons

 

 

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S Surface
Design for Scent Sensitivities in the Public Sphere

In this talk, S Surface (they, them) explores the complexities of working with scent in the public sphere. S is chemically injured, and fragrance can cause severe reactions such as nausea, bleeding and headaches. And yet, with a Shinto upbringing, the appreciation of scent/incense is important in S’s Japanese heritage.  Moreover, as a person of color, S has experienced discrimination based on assumptions about how “you people” smell (as have many fellow PoC). Negotiating these complexities, S has been developing the guidelines for their government workplace’s scent-free policy, while also running an art gallery where some individuals present fragrance as their art form. This talk will share their research into what’s worked and what hasn’t. While honoring scent as an art form, the talk will also solicit ideas and connections for how to prioritize disability justice.

S Surface is a Seattle-based urbanist, designer, educator, and curator. With the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, Surface is the curatorial lead for ARTS at King Street Station, a gallery, performance space, and artist residency where communities of color can create and present their work. Surface was previously co-curator of The Alice, an artist-run gallery. At Design in Public, Surface was director of the Seattle Design Festival. Previously, Surface was an architectural associate at super-interesting!, and editor at Columbia University GSAPP’s Volume Architecture Journal. Before entering the architecture and curatorial fields, Surface designed packaging and created still-life and product photography for luxury fragrances. They earned the M.Arch from Yale School of Architecture and the BFA in Integrated Design from Parsons School of Design.

 

 

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Tom Blunt
Gender Euphoria in Fragrance Design and Product Marketing

Perfume can be a gender-affirming experience for virtually anyone, but the fragrance fantasies advertised to the public remain mostly constrained to “women,” “men,” and the safe but increasingly meaningless “unisex.” These blind-spots related to sex and gender can become self-imposed limits on the imagination of artists and marketing teams alike. This talk will explore nuances in gender expression, both in language and in scent, that can help perfumers feel more surefooted in the articulation of their own fantasies, and in connecting with the needs of an increasingly diverse audience. Examples will be drawn from the catalog of Los Angeles-based Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, which specifically creates products to include a broader range of perspectives (female, male, genderfluid, agender, non-binary, questioning, etc.).

 

 

 

 

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