Remember that Headspace symposium on "Scent As Design" held at the Parsons School back in March? If not, here's a reminder. Well, they filmed it. Here's the first part, and I'll post the rest over the coming days, or you can go watch them all at YouTube right now. Below the jump you'll find a brief synopsis.
Part 1 is about 90 minutes long, and includes an introduction by Joel Towers, Dean of Parsons, followed by introductions by Paola Antonelli, Jamer Hunt and Laetitia Wolff. At the 23 minute mark, they show a film about the first of several "accidental perfumers" ("a selection of architects, designers, and chefs who were invited to experiment with scent"), designer Ayse Birsel, who worked with perfumers Celine Barel and Laurent Le Guernec to create a series of conceptual fragrances. At the 37 minute mark, Chandler Burr talks to Ayse Birsel and Laurent Le Guernec about the fragrances they designed.
At 47 minutes, perfumer Carlos Benaïm takes the podium and talks about the intersection between perfume and design (and you can read more about the Visionaire issue he talks about here). Then Benaïm is joined by Ayse Birsel, Véronique Ferval and Laetitia Wolff for a panel discussion.
i was there! from 9-5! it was interesting seeing how people (designers) actually incorporate scent into design now. being a parsons student whose portfolio included 3 scents, i thought i was the only one.
Must have been great fun to smell everything!
That is some pretty far-out conceptual stuff. Very cool. For me, it reinforces the idea that scent is so much more than just a “pretty” smell or a cute bottle – at least to many of us. Lots of new ideas to ponder. Thanks for this, R.
I’m looking forward to seeing some of the other accidental perfumers. This one, I don’t know…it was fun conceptually (and would love to smell them!) but didn’t really feel like it integrated design & perfumery in any big way?
I’ve only seen this first part, so hopefully it’ll come together more clearly later on.
I was interested in Veronique’s comments at around 1:28. The panel was discussing facilitating dialogue directly with consumers, and she mentioning bloggers. I think some nuance may have been lost in the translation, but she said that bloggers “touch more, like, uh, fragrance addicts, so it’s a small team.” I’m still trying to figure out exactly what she meant, and what that might say about her other ideas about us. I wouldn’t say she sounds especially knowledgeable – or especially positive. I wish we could enlighten them. 😉
I took her meaning as being that the blogging community was not representative of perfume consumers as a whole, and I’d say that’s right on target.
True, Robin, but we might be exactly the types most interested in the kind of dialogue they’re interested it?
Well, not clear to me from that panel exactly what sort of dialogue the fragrance industry is interested in, if any. Seems to me they’d like to take advantage of those kinds of social media that might increase sales, if you can call that a dialogue, otherwise they’re mostly not interested — which is fine with me!
At any rate, Veronique Ferval, who was speaking, is quite aware of blogs — that is who Victoria of Bois de Jasmine went off to work for (although she has since moved on to perfumery school) and if I’m not mistaken, Victoria was replaced by Marina at Perfume Smellin’ Things.
I guess I was maybe engaging in a little wishful thinking: that the dialogue was really to exchange ideas about fragrance rather than being primarily a way to increase sales. Somehow the whole presentation seemed to be about design concepts rather than marketing concepts, but who knows what the agenda might actually be? You’re probably quite right, R.
As I see it, the dialogue so far is about how designers might incorporate scent into their work. That’s not directly about marketing, but it isn’t directly about interacting with consumers (or bloggers), either, right?
I got to smell them, R., albeit quickly. I didn’t find them that interesting.
So far, that’s been the bugaboo for me with many of the conceptual art projects–the smells are just not nearly as interesting as the framework.
Oh, good to know…now I can stop wishing.
I just realized, both Cruel Gardenia and Pure Poison, two of my favorites, have “headspace” gardenia in them. C.G. doesn’t smell like any flower, which has won both praise and ridicule, and P.P. smells more like jasmine. Maybe I don’t really like Gardenia…?
What’s the difference between Headspace and Solar notes anyway?
(the speakers are broken so I can’t hear the commercial)
Headspace = fragrance captured from a living material using modern technology
But bear in mind that even if a fragrance uses very realistic notes for a flower, it’s still going to have other notes as well, so what you end up with may or may not smell like the flower
Solar notes: musky notes meant to mimic the smell of sun on skin. I think. I’ve actually never seen an explanation anywhere, that’s just what I take it to mean.
Thank you Robin for clarifying that, there is jasmine in Pure Poison too. But not in Cruel Garden. That must be why it’s cruel. Nice Wedding scent though, it’s a luminous romantic skin scent.
Sp0Speaking of Guerlain, have you smelled L’instant? it’s a floral oriental and I love all the notes, except benzoin, Is benzoin a spice? I don’t know if that’s the note that gives orientals that distinct strong smell I don’t care for.
Thank you for answering my question! 🙂
Well, bear in mind that you don’t know if there’s jasmine in Cruel Gardenia, nor can you know what other flowers might be in Pure Poison. The lists of notes are usually far from complete.
Benzoin is a resin: https://nstperfume.com/perfume-glossary/