olfactory context

watch:
Sissel Tolaas, smell/scent artist, lecture at the GSD, April 01, 2009
"SMELL = information at tool of communication and navigation"

also read:
article in Wired about her 2006 exhibit (see above image)
the FEAR of Smell — the Smell of FEAR at MIT's List Visual Arts Center
"The Odor Artist"

see also:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=516332
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=116&art_id=qw1165472463755S312
http://www.article.no/en/content/kunstnere/sissel-tolaas-no
http://www.showstudio.com/project/violence

and more:
archived lectures at the GSD here, an excellent resource- just like my pal, Tammy

Thanks Tammy, for showing me this crazy woman!

***

I find Tolaas' work incredibly exciting. It reeks of what drew me to the subject of smell and scent in the first place- mystery, simplicity/complexity, invisible workings, boundless scale and intimate reach, possibility and playfulness, and so on. And all of it grounded in the hard science of chemistry, craziness of neuroscience, case studies of psychology... I'm fascinated how "this all"/scent/smell? can be explored in art, how it translates into (an) experience, how this exp. can be structured and how that then feeds back into how we approach/perceive/move through (our lives??the world? space?). I'm so dramatic, it's kind of sickening. And inarticulate, scattered.

I want to learn more about her work with smell and language... oh language, I could think all day about language, how one word relates and folds into another, exists in several states and meanings at once... and don't even get me started on sentences. On a sort of sidenote, I'm having very bad communication problems these days. This ranges from being unable to write coherently or speak properly (can one be orally dyslexic?). Even this video of that lecture cannot stream on my computer without glitchy blankspots every 2 seconds... maybe someone can fill in the gaps for me?

It just occured to me that maybe I'm only into that which is associated with smell, like ideas and things peripheral to it (but also central?)... but maybe not so much smell/scent itself? Is this the only way to engage with smell though? or is this just me? I'm not a big scent/perfume freak- (scenthorse?). While I enjoy it sometimes on other people, I can't handle more than a little ladies deoderent on myself... or else I feel queasy and lost. I should interview people soon.