ORISONS
Collecting and preserving The fragrance of HUMANS - 2018
I’m collecting the fragrance of my family.
The unique signature scent of each person in our family will create an olfactory family tree.
I’m training myself to read the olfactory cyphers of people. This information is not intended for machines nor algorithms to read in a dystopian future but one that may be learnt through human smell training. Not only to detect disease as in for example Joy Milne but to gain a fuller multisensory appreciation of the people around us to feel greater empathy with them.It may become possible to perceive the human plume which trails downwind from each body carrying with it the fragrances of our civilisation and times by training ourselves to read olfactory cyphers by sniffing the wind.
My family’s smell is recorded and preserved for a future where it may be read by training ourselves to read the meanings imbued in signature smells/scents. Each person’s scent necklace is preserved in its own ultraviolet apothacary glass jar. My family were immigrants to New Zealand so I painted a sparrow for the necklace as a visual metaphor.
The word Orison was used by Mitchell in Cloud Atlas to mean a futuristic recording device. Orison draws on my 2009 PLUME project, an olfactory investigation into the scent of humans in collaboration with Richard Newcomb, a molecular biologist, NZ. “Crossing Wires”, the resulting exhibition allowed members of the public to have their dirty socks distilled. Crossing Wires on The Big Idea The general public were invited to smell the individual work sock hydrosols and match them with a selection of colours.
In the next phase of Orison I intend to collect the scent of people living in a conflict zones, war zones and areas affected by climate change events.
ORISONS : Collecting and preserving The fragrance of HUMANS 2018
I’m collecting the fragrance of my family.
The unique signature scent of each person in our family will create an olfactory family tree.
I’m training myself to read the olfactory cyphers of people. This information is not intended for machines nor algorithms to read in a dystopian future but one that may be learnt through human smell training. Not only to detect disease as in for example Joy Milne but to gain a fuller multisensory appreciation of the people around us to feel greater empathy with them.It may become possible to perceive the human plume which trails downwind from each body carrying with it the fragrances of our civilisation and times by training ourselves to read olfactory cyphers by sniffing the wind.
My family’s smell is recorded and preserved for a future where it may be read by training ourselves to read the meanings imbued in signature smells/scents. Each person’s scent necklace is preserved in its own ultraviolet apothacary glass jar. My family were immigrants to New Zealand so I painted a sparrow for the necklace as a visual metaphor.
The word Orison was used by Mitchell in Cloud Atlas to mean a futuristic recording device. Orison draws on my 2009 PLUME project, an olfactory investigation into the scent of humans in collaboration with Richard Newcomb, a molecular biologist, NZ. “Crossing Wires”, the resulting exhibition allowed members of the public to have their dirty socks distilled. Crossing Wires on The Big Idea The general public were invited to smell the individual work sock hydrosols and match them with a selection of colours.
In the next phase of Orison I intend to collect the scent of people living in a conflict zones, war zones and areas affected by climate change events.
I began my investigation around the odour of stress in Downwind. Please read Downwind PDF here.
Chemosensory communication in humans is related to the detection of danger and emotional contagion. It is common across the animal kingdom that stressed individuals inform their conspecifics via chemosignals about a potential harm (e.g., a predator attack). Pause (2012) .
Most animals prefer to keep the wind in their faces when traveling so that they can scent danger ahead of them. The military and intelligence agencies also use tracking to find enemy combatants in the bush, land, sea, and desert. Combatants and animals must never be in a position where their scent could be carried towards their foe. Lundström et al ( 2013) Functional Neuronal Processing of Human Body Odors.
The unique signature smell of humans in dirty socks was explored in both PLUME Crossing Wires art + science lab installation Raewyn Turner & Richard Newcomb 2009, and in collaboration with Diana Burgoyne(CA) in FLAP 2010 exhibited at MIC. In FLAP we explored the perception of dirty sock odours from people living in New Zealand and Canada