Living with Scents

Abstract

In the United States, smell is often poorly delivered. Think, for example, of the clumsy smell-o-vision attempts in 1950s movie theaters, or the overbearing fragrance of scented candles. The phenomenon of “nose-blindness,” whereby we become desensitized to a scent within minutes of experiencing it, means that common scent delivery often seems heavy handed, or is partner to a separate primary experience, as is the case when eating food. But Living with Scents, a oneroom exhibition curated by Elisabetta Pisu and Clara Muller, offered an alternative vision of fragrance. Muller, who writes for the French olfactory magazine NEZ, sees the cultural presence of scent changing. As Muller told me in an interview conducted via email: