The Institute for Art and Olfaction, a new organization devoted to the art and science of perfumery, is scheduled to open in Los Angeles in March 2013:
Founder Saskia Wilson-Brown has partnered with programming director Kóan Jeff Baysa, creative director Micah Hahn, and an advisory board of thirteen experts in perfumery and public art to launch The Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO). Devoted to multi-arts experimentation, IAO will highlight innovation and artistry in perfumery, and will juxtapose it with other creative practices to instigate greater public engagement with scent.
“Los Angeles’s civic character – innovative, international, sophisticated yet populist – makes it the ideal locale for a new kind of space; where artists, scientists, scent experts and the public can converge to re-envision and re-interpret the olfactive arts in the context of a public creative practice” says Wilson-Brown.
The programming effort will be led by IAO’s Director of Programming: Kóan Jeff Baysa. “I’m thrilled and honored to be with the vanguard of this forward-thinking organization. I’ll be programming highly informative, interactive projects and events that engage broad audiences by conflating the most exciting current topics in art and science.” says Baysa. Perfumer Mandy Aftel, a founding member of the Board of Advisors, adds: “The IAO will bring the art of perfumery into various aesthetic contexts and collaborations, as well as helping to form an educational nucleus about the gorgeous world of scent.” Indeed, the IAO’s activities will include public education programs, an archive of contemporary perfume releases, and a laboratory for scent experimentation. The institute will also host an artist in residence program designed to incite cross-genre collaboration between olfactory experts and practitioners on the cutting edge of other fields. In connecting these different types of people, the organization hopes to facilitate strange and beautiful new projects: An aerospace engineer might collaborate with a perfumer to create a scent for outer space, a designer might develop a typeface around the scent categories, or a gang member might work with a molecular biologist to re-create the scent of fear at midnight.
The Board of advisors includes Adolfo Nodal (former GM, LA Cultural Affairs Department), Brent Leonesio (perfumer), Chad Clark (Architect), Chris Kemp (molecular biologist, author), David Burns (co-founder ‘Fallen Fruit’), Dr. Avery Gilbert (smell scientist, author), Franco Wright (co-founder Luckyscent.com), James McHugh (perfume historian), Josh Meyer (perfumer), Katie Puckrik (blogger & critic), Mandy Aftel (perfumer, author), Sarah Shewey (producer) and Steven Gontarski (niche perfume expert).
For more information, see The Institute for Art and Olfaction website.
(via press release)
9 Comments
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Very interesting but I don’t like the logo – the inclusion of a bird seems a bit strange?
The bird struck me as odd too. And the first thing that came to mind was “stick a bird on it”, and obviously that occurred to sweetgrass too!
Other than that, this is great news I think.
Maybe the designer was having a creative block and decided to watch Portlandia for inspiration..lol.
(If you haven’t seen Portlandia, this is what I’m talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XM3vWJmpfo)
That was my thought exactly. (and love that show, btw)
Good news!
Yes! Look forward to seeing what they do.
This strengthens the idea that perfurmers are artists. Awesome!
Okay, cute project. It assumes something that most of nst reader probably take as a given, that fragrance is an art. BUT the assumption on the part of people of privilege that a gang member would “recreate the scent of fear at midnight” just kind of disgusts me. Yes he or she might. But that same gang member might also recreate the scent of some wonderful home recipe or a flower, a musical piece or an abstraction. Shame on whoever wrote this copy!
Hey folks! Just wanted to drop in to say hi, and thanks for the feedback. Obviously as an emerging non-profit, your insight and comments are super helpful. Look forward to seeing more, and thanks to Robin at Now Smell This for taking a leap of faith and posting about us.
To Lys’ comment above: A fair point, and profoundly agree with the intention of the comment. But there’s one small detail that is not reflected in your feedback: The idea of recreating the scent of fear at midnight was actually proposed by the head of a gang intervention task force here in Los Angeles as the most salient project for some of the young gang members he was working with (based, by the way, on their feedback). We’re going to make it happen in 2013, and I am curious, as you are no doubt, to see how it works out.
OK- if anyone has any ideas or further comments or the time and interest to send your thoughts our way, please do not hesitate to email us directly: hello@artandolfaction.com.
–Saskia