Olfactory Art: October 2008

27.10.08

edible perfume

I'll hold a workshop at FoAM in Brussel (Belgium) on the 16th of November. For this workshop I've made a small experiment of making an 'edible perfume', inspired by the idea of flavor coupling in the world of molecular gastronomy.

The experimentation is about making a flavored / perfumed liquor with lavender and rose.

Left: lavender
Right: rose

[Extraction process]

Lavender in solvent

Rose in solvent.

[Composition process]

recipe

lavender extract, 1ml
rose extract, 1 ml

[Result]

It's very bitter, so it's better to add some fruit sugar. The taste of rose is slightly stronger, but it makes me really feel like ingesting a perfume, so I'd leave it like this. A nice flowery smell is still present in my throat after a couple of minits of ingestion. It's a nice sensation between tasting and smelling.

[Why did I choose rose and lavender combination?]

Inspired by the idea of flavor coupling, I was looking for a "good couple" to test. "He" and "she" should contain common substance(s). At the perfumery school in Grasse I've learned that there is a common chemical substance in rose oil and lavender oil.

lavender oil - main substances

Linalool (10 - 20 %)
Linalyl acetate (30 - 60%)
Camphor
Terpene
1,8-Cineol
Lavanduol
Lavandulyl Acetate

rose oil (Damascus) - main substances

Citronellol (45 - 50% )
Geraniol
Nerol
Linalool (20 - 25%)
Phenyl ethyl alcohol (1 - 2 %)
Nonyl alcohol
eugenol

Their common factor is Linalool. They both contain about 20 % of it. This substance is expected to connect between them flavor wise.

24.10.08

Smelly book

This is the catalogue of the exhibition If there ever was　- an exhibition of extinct and impossible smells - .

All the smells exhibited are printed with microencapsulation. It's the book for scratch & sniff.

If There Ever Was: a book of extinct and impossible smells
ISBN: 978-0-9557478-0-9 (rrp £12.00)
distributed by: Cornerhouse, www.cornerhouse.org
published by: Art Editions North

19.10.08

The smell of space

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1078215/Ever-wondered-space-smells-like-Fried-steak-hot-metal-say-scientists.html

It's an project by Steven Pearce, who also participated in the exhibition If there ever was in Suderland, U.K.

guest teacher at the Rietvelt Academy Amsterdam

One of the teacher at the Rietvelt Academy in Amsterdam asked me to participate in the students' project with the theme object / symbol / culture.

The students and the 4 guests (including me) were asked to bring one object and tell about it and himself/herself in 1 or 2 minutes.

They brought brick, egg... and

card,

walnut,

and an apple that's naturally dried 11 years ago.

I wanted to bring something invisible and olfactory, but the 'object' had to be something to be photographed. So I brought this necklace. It's made with massive sandalwood, so it's not just a necklace but also a perfume. By wearing it the sandalwood gets heated by the body temperature and its fragrance gets subtly diffused. It's an object where function, material, and form interact each other.

Now students have 2 weeks to create T-shirts with their own ideas, and we'll get together in the beginning of November again for their presentation.