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What an overload of a session! We hosted divers and his colleague have been working on, Bourgeon. Bourgeon is an interactive he an emotion. While Dimitri checked out the results and correlations of the experiment Rikard Jönsson presented the application and and amazing guests. Starting with the experiment on Synesthesia by Dimitri Cacouris. Dimitri presented 3 different scented mixes to be matched with a picture, a color, database for perfumes. You can find out the ingredients of your favorite perfume and find matches, so to say, which other perfumes might have similar components.

Also, I gave a presentation on my olfactory artwork: I spoke shortly about my pieces Synthesis, Petrichor, Pixel Jungle and smellSCAPES.

All of this with the TV walking around and interviewing us.

MEET UP

Smell Lab 7 was LOVELY! 

Anke Werner from RBB - radioeins visited us! We are very happy and thankful for her visit and motivation! It was very nice meeting you Anke!

We started the session sharing smell souvenirs…

Sheraz has been back to Toronto, where he is originally from.

@Sheraz: Two things remind me of home more than anything else - the smell of my mom’s home cooking and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. These two things are generally difficult to find in Germany, for a number of reasons. The smell of spices bring home cooking to my nose and my mouth and are full with hot, earthy, herbal and dry smells from cardamom, red curry, cinnamon, chives, cloves, and coriander. The smell of pharmaceuticals bring the uniquely scientific process of north American healing back to my mind with smells of artificial fruits (berry, banana, orange), plastic, menthol, chalk and unidentified sweetness. With each of these I feel at home for a moment in a smellscape that is completely new to me. 

Daria went to Mexico.

@Daria:  Driving along the Southern coast of Mexico, some smells were present everywhere. For example the smell of the salty and fishy sea, and food trucks preparing local fast food along the road, which smelled oily and spicy, dominated by Habanero-chilipepper. The latter, in sauce-bottle, I brought to Berlin, alongside with Mezcal (local agave-based liquor) and Belizian coffee-beans. Those had strong scents, which were not hard to address. The more diffuse smell came from a decorative skull I bought as a souvenir. The skull is made from a plastic-like material, painted and coated with a shiny laquer. It looks beautiful, but also quite real and therefore slightly scary. It smells chemical and aritificial, with a scent of an old cave or an ancient object. Smelling each of the objects brings me back to Mexico for a few seconds.

Alanna went to Marrakesh, Morocco.

@Alanna:  Marrakesh is an intense experience for all the senses!  From the amazing market smells to the less pleasant ones of the tanneries and the many stray cats.  I brought back a number of teas, herbs, a piece of sandalwood, eucalyptus crystals, freshly ground ginger and mix of 42 spices commonly used in cooking.  Haggling over the price was another experience altogether!  On my last day I was walking in the street behind a man carrying a huge bundle of fresh spices on a bicycle, fresh mint and more – unbelievable!

And Klara went to the Philippines.

@Klara: discovering new scents it’s always an adventure. During my trip I had a scent bloquer: the mosquito repelent and the sun lotion I was using in daily basis was covering any other subtile possible smell around me. However, the Philippines is a palm tree crowded land. Every evening, Philippinos will burn the dry cocos fromt he floor, and also the dry palm tree leaves. The scent was really strong, between eucalyptus & smoke, fresh and dry!

The session followed to a presentation by Eeva and Anne-Laure.

And Mareike showed us the super wonderful video Moritz filmed and she edited from our first showed Collected Smells! The links is coming soon!

MEET UP

During the February smell lab edition we hosted 2 artist presentations. Alanna Lynch and Chaveli Sifre introduced us to their works. Both artist have worked previously with the sense of smell.

We had an improvised sniffing conducted by Max: he sprayed the most expensive perfumes from Rossmann in some plastic envelopes, without previous announcement of what were we smelling.

I made a game/experiment. I wanted to check what’s easier, to match smells and pictures or smells and words. The results of the group proved that it might be more simple for the majority to relate scents and images.

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During the past months Smell Lab was born from the hand of olfactory artist Klara Ravat. A group of enthusiasts with a passion for the sense of smell and its uses in art and science, gather every month to experiment and discuss new realities and approaches to one of the most forgotten senses of the human body, olfaction.

This night will showcase the work that has been going on in the lab so far: 

Collected Smells is the first installation produced by the Smell Lab. The work consists of several smells gathered during the Smell Lab's meetings and derived from various locations in Berlin-Neukölln. The installation is made up of sheets of cloth imbued with scents from our surroundings, for example - the water, the soil, cigarette smoke...

The work is the culmination of the lab's explorations and is the first in a series of future projects.

At 20:00 there will be a short presentation about the piece with the participating artists: Daria Chesnokova, Chaveli Sifre, Max Joy, Alanna Lynch, Sheraz Kahn, Mareike Bode, Dimitri Cacouris and Klara Ravat.

This event is part of the transmediale/CTM Vorspiel 2016 festival 

MEET UP

The Smell Lab is a monthly meeting space open for everybody who is interested in experimenting around the sense of smell. 

During this session we will take our current project a step further. We will meet at 18h at Spektrum's door and get together for an improvised walk around the city.

Our goal is to experiment on how to recollect smells from the city which we will be using for our future art piece. 

MEET UP

October 12, 2015

The Smell Lab is a monthly meeting space open for everybody who is interested in experimenting around the sense of smell. 

Join us for the Smell Lab #4, at which will learn about the science of smell followed by a smell experiment while continuing to grow ideas for potential up-coming projects.

In the first part Sheraz Khan will present his definition of smell and explain the use of smell extraction tools, as he will lead a discussion about how the content matches or goes against the community owns views of smell and as well how could we use the knowledge to take our ideas further within the Smell Lab.

In part two we will conduct a scent in space experiment. Please bring any kind of dispenser (object, machine, apparatus) that you can use to dispense scent in space as well as a odor (eg. essential oil) to use with the mentioned fragrance dispenser.

We look forward to seeing you - newcomers are welcome to join!

MEET UP

August 31, 2015

Join us for third meeting and share your ideas on how you would like to experiment with olfaction and how Berlin smells to you. Our main goal will be to develop and pre-determine project ideas that can be further developed in future meetings, and to discuss a preliminary deadline for showcasing projects and works-in-progress.

We will start Smell Lab # 3 by brainstorming and discussing the possibilities for future projects. This is the moment to update the community about your research interests, project ideas, and way of working.

We will also engage in a blindfolded smell session along with describing our olfactory experience: please bring along a smell that you associate with Berlin and instruct us on how to experience it.

MEET UP

August 17, 2015

In this second meeting we will be shaping ideas for projects that could arise out of the Smell Lab and engage in smell exercises. Join us and contribute to pre-determinating project ideas that will be developed further throughout the following meetings.  

We will start the meeting with blindfolded smell exercises: please bring an object that you consider compelling in terms of smell. We will smell and describe the scents with different methods.

We will also brainstorm and discuss ideas about future projects. This is the moment to update everyone about the development of your research interests and/or your envisioned project ideas.

MEET UP

July 06, 2015

During the first meeting, Klara Ravat presented the Smell Lab.

gave some examples We about the role of scent in art as well as olfactory rituals across cultures.

Participants shared their interests in and experiences working with smell, which were documented in form of a list and idea map.

We conducted one blind/blindfolded smell exercise which involved describing an unknown smell, which turned out to be cedar wood. This exercise implied great diversity in perception and vocabulary.

The first meeting was very lively and sparked informal conversations afterwards at the bar.