05 April 2010

For D.C. Noses: "Scents & Medical Sensibility" at Smith Farm Center


It's always nice to see efforts to draw the world of scent closer to other creative disciplines. A recent talk by Christophe Laudamiel and the neurobiologist Stuart Firestein at the Rubin Museum of Art made a case for appreciating scents via the same critical faculties we use to think about music, sculpture, poetry or any other art. Parsons pushed the same envelope by asking attendees of its Headspace symposium to "acknowledge scent as a new territory for design," and invited architects and designers to become "accidental perfumers" by collaborating with established noses from IFF and Coty.

A new group exhibit from now to May 1 at Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts outside Washington, D.C. seems free of that self-important Manhattan luster, but explores similar territory from a bodily perspective: "how the physical self experiences and knows the world through the sense of smell…[and] the connection between physical health and visual, gustatory, and olfactory aesthetics." Curated by Kóan Jeff Baysa, a physician as well as curator and critic, this seems like an excellent place to nerd out for an afternoon. More info here.

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