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n Our most precious moments of travel are taken home not through our luggage, not through our purchases, not through our cameras but through our senses. Mendiratta, 2010
Smell sources: Online research Wyatt, C (2003), personal recollections, field trip visit, Facebook requests to friends who lived, live or visited.
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n Limited guidance notes embedded in exhibit
Antique perfume bottles on mirrored shelving to recreate ambiance of a Parisian Parfumeur
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n Parisian Perfumes: rain, urine, red wine, bread, thick sizzling steaks, cellars, cheese, strong coffee, drains, flowers, Gauloises, paints and painters, parquet flooring, perfume.
Liquids scents: alcohol and distilled water as base with oil
Gaseous scents: trapped into black velvet inside plastic bags and swiftly bottled.
Authenticity is important.
JDT
Rain on the grass on a Sunday run through all the Paris parks.
Rain
Triumph
Jardin des Tuileries, 1er
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n Video illustrates williingness of participants to take smell the unknown and to contemplate the questions and their responses. Event took place Oct/Nov 2010.
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLlUC2eCG8s
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAC_QfD3-8U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLlUC2eCG8shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAC_QfD3-8U
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n A collection of over 500 snotes
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The smells and scents of Paris evoked a multitude of memories in the audience; the smell of recently smoked Gauloises cigarettes elicited locations that were personal, coffee evoked stories, perfume conjured memories of people, wooden floors brought an era or an age to mind, drains prompted recollections of objects.
A scent map that I imagined would lead directly to other worldwide locations prompted sniffers to recall places much closer to home. Paris became irrelevant.
I also discovered that it is impossible to recreate a city simply through its smells.
TRAILS OFEVOCATION
Story Brazilian coffee shops often offer coffee for customers to refresh their sense of odour between sniffing differrent perfumes.
Emotion (unspecified) Sunday morning flat I was growing up in dad is making coffee. Too much vinegar on chips.
Person My grandpa. A sophisticated granny. Every teacher I ever had.
Location (personal) Empty railway platform. My old flat. The attic of our house.
Activity Baking. The walk along the seawall
Emotion (specified) B.O. Bleurgh! Disgusting deep fried fish. Expectation.
Era/Age Southern France 2002 & tent. Days gone by.
Location (universal) Newton Ferrers beach on work visits. Shore at sunrise, Varna Veche, Romania.
Object Mosquito repellent. Macadamia nuts. Old bread. Dads hairgrowth lotion.
Event New Years Eve. Boxing Day.Other Make my nose itchy. Wednesday afternoon.
Flowers
Perfume
Cheese
CoffeeGauloises
Steak
WineRain
Drains
Bread
Urine
Parquet
OilPaints
MustyCellars
1. The most written-about smell was that of Gauloises!
2. Musty cellars encourages recollections of personal locations/spaces
3. Urine made people recall universally known locations
4. Strong cheese evoked specified emotions
5. The the smell of recently smoked Gauloises cigarettes elicited unspecified emotions
6. Coffee evoked stories
7. Coffee made people recall an activity
8. Perfume conjured memories of people
9. Wooden floors brought an era or an age to mind
10. Wine made people think of an event
11. Drains prompted recollections of object
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n Axes of interest: location, range, intensity & direction
Thinking of smell as a visual.
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Sea, sand, beach
Brewery malt fumes
Vaults & underground streets
Boys toilets in primary schools
Fish & chip shops
Penguins at the zoo
Cherry blossom
Newly-cut grass
Coffee
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Smells of Auld Reekie on a very breezy day in 2011
Auld Reekie emits a plethora of scents and smells; some particular to Edinburgh, some ubiquitous
city aromas. It is the smell combination, and how they are distributed by the prevailing south-
westerly winds that make them city-specific. Coloured dots indicate the point of origin of the
scents, the contour lines show where they blow to in the wind.
Sea, sand, beach
Brewery malt fumes
Vaults & underground streets
Boys toilets in primary schools
Fish & chip shops
Penguins at the zoo
Cherry blossom
Newly-cut grass
Coffee
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Smells of Auld Reekie on a very breezy day in 2011
Auld Reekie emits a plethora of scents and smells; some particular to Edinburgh, some ubiquitous
city aromas. It is the smell combination, and how they are distributed by the prevailing south-
westerly winds that make them city-specific. Coloured dots indicate the point of origin of the
scents, the contour lines show where they blow to in the wind.
Edinburgh Smell Map refined over four months.
Interviews with locals about senses in Edinburgh yeilded the following as starting points. Rejections included vomit, alkaloid manufacturing site. Smells never found include the biscuit factory.
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n Smells evoked nostalgic memories of Edinburghs former brewing industry amongst locals. Visitors commented on the vaults and underground cellars.
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Deep in Manhattens Lower East Side, a summer odor lurks. Identified as arising from 284 Broome Street what is it coming from?
http://nymag.com/guides/summer/2011/smelliest-block/
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n Creative recording of smell data collection includes watercolour, sketch maps, lists, collage.
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