Smell & Tell: Tincturing Memory (Olfactory Volume II)

Tincturing is a process used by healers and perfumers to extract plant essences. It’s also a butterfly net for capturing and preserving memories. This is not the stuff of dreams. Memories define the past, infuse the present and shape our future—and many of them can be bottled.

Imagine having access to olfactory vignettes imbued with themes from your unique life story. Liquid memories that can be summoned and revisited at will. Sounds like magic, but it’s pure science and know-how.

Experience tinctured materials inspired by people, places and plants that will inspire you to reflect on olfactory elements that shape memory and storytelling. Smell & Tell attendees will learn how to tincture their own memories so they can share them with friends and loved ones. Memory Kits will be provided to all attendees.

The scent flight for this program includes the following crafted essences: Baasiminaanan, L’épice du Roi Indien, Daylight Moonshine, Galium Odoratum, Autumn in Chartreuse, Rachel’s Glamour, Father’s Hug and Smokeless Kemuri (煙)
 *Ojibwe for “berries”. Pronunciation here.  

The Smell and Tell series of art+science programming is led by Michelle Krell Kydd, a trained nose in flavors and fragrance who shares her passion for gastronomy and the perfume arts on Glass Petal Smoke. Smell & Tell builds community through interactions with flavor, fragrance and storytelling. The unique and popular series celebrates its eighth anniversary year at the Ann Arbor District Library in June and is ongoing.

Smell &Tell: Tincturing Memory (Olfactory Volume II) 
Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2020
[This event is postponed as of 3/11/20. It will be rescheduled]
Time: 6:30-8:45PM
Location: The Ann Arbor District Library, Downtown Branch
Address: 343 South Fifth Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Phone: 734-327-4200
Admission is free and is sponsored by AADL
Link to Event: https://aadl.org/node/398025

Notes:
The first installment of Smell & Tell: Tincturing Memory took place in 2018. Volume II introduces a new set of olfactory vignettes for smelling. I designed the Memory Kits for the Smell & Tell program. The kits allow attendees to build on their learning experience and are distributed free of charge to attendees thanks to the generosity of the Ann Arbor District Library. Memory Kits will be distributed to participants at the end of the program.

Smell and Tell: Brian Eno Smells

A journalist was interviewing musician/producer Brian Eno in candlelit room when the artist opened a faded lime-colored metal briefcase filled with “an array of phials” containing raw materials used in perfumery. The year was 1982 and the article was titled “An Evening with Brian Eno”. This was the first interview where the subject of scent became the main topic of discussion—it wasn’t the last.

Brian Eno is a full-on smellaholic who continues to collect raw ingredients used in perfumery for private enjoyment and inspiration. What is it about the art of perfumery that continues to fascinate the renowned founder of ambient music? How does Eno’s passion for smells shape his creative output? (Hint: if you download his Bloom app on iTunes you’ll find a breadcrumb trail of synesthetic clues).

What are Brian Eno’s favorite smells and why do they have the impact that they do? Recode your concept of creativity. Get inside Brian Eno’s olfactory mind and find out what happens when normal instruments are abandoned and disconnected events are smelled in circuit.

The Smell and Tell series of art+science programming is led by Michelle Krell Kydd, a trained nose in flavors and fragrance who shares her passion for gastronomy and the perfume arts on Glass Petal Smoke. Smell & Tell builds community through interactions with flavor, fragrance and storytelling. The unique and popular series celebrates its eighth anniversary year in June at the Ann Arbor District Library and is ongoing.

Smell & Tell: Brian Eno Smells
Date: Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Time: 6:30-8:45PM
Location: The Ann Arbor District Library, Pittsfield Branch
Address: 2359 Oak Valley Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Phone: 734-327-4200
Admission is free and is sponsored by AADL
Link to Event: https://aadl.org/node/398023

Notes:
Recommended reading for insight into a collaboration between Brian Eno and Maurice Roucel that's curious and mysterious: Brian Eno, Maurice Roucel and the Perfume of Unfinished Business.

Brian Eno Smells debuted at the Ann Arbor District Library in 2018. Attendees and new fans of Smell & Tell at the library wanted an encore. Et voila. There's a new smell added to the scent flight; a perfume that a woman Eno encountered declared as aphrodisiac. Eno associates it with biblical Nard (Spikenard), but it's something completely different. You'll have to attend the program to smell Nardo and find out what it really is (I have it and production is officially discontinued).

Lesson? Don't rely on aphrodisiac lore when you get a sample of of Nardo perfume from a woman in Ibiza: "...a woman I met in Ibiza gave me a minute bottle containing just one drop of an utterly heavenly material called Nardo (I later came to think that this was probably spikenard oil, extracted from a shrub growing at between six and eight thousand feet on the Himalayas and used by wealthy Indian ladies as a prelude to lovemaking)." Tsk-tsk, Brian.