Suzana Orsolic

Day 4: Smelling

“Do you have heavy or light sadness?”

The question on the importance of context also guided us through day four, a day that was fully dedicated to olfaction.

Frank Bloem, Niklaus Mettler and Nour Akoum from the Mediamatic Aroma Lab provided us with a crash course on the world of scents and together we tried, again with the help of Hildegard, to create a scent that would cure sadness. A magic “white” formula of rose, lemon, cloves and eucalyptus might change your state of unhappiness, and we created different versions to choose from depending on the severity of your sadness, just to make sure. A “green” scent on the other hand, containing lemongrass, lots of basil, berries, carrot and nuts is supposed to help improve your sight. 


A scent to cure your sadness - Suzana Orsolic

Again, the question arose, about when we have actually learned what smell is considered to be good and fresh and which one is the bad and not healthy one. As we were going through the various scents and smelled the different aromas, Alice asked, when handed the cloves aroma, what this was. Naturally, we repeated what was printed on the bottle. “No, but what is it in my mind?”, Alice repeated her question. 


Martin and Alice exploring scents and connected emotions and memories - Suzana Orsolic

So, the next time, when smelling a loaf of freshly baked bread or drinking your morning coffee or eating a perfectly arranged dish at a restaurant, we should all ask ourselves this exact question. Because it is never about tasting and smelling the food (only), it is about what its story does to our minds and thoughts, long after we have left the dining table. 

The initial idea of combining colours and senses that we kicked the week off with is still here and is now being enriched by connecting sins with body parts and body parts with food - that is again being connected to the sins. Panta rhei, the ideas are flowing, and I am very curious to find out what Martin’s Hildegard-infused mind will bring to the Neo Futurist Dinner table.