Art Scents: Exploring the Aesthetics of Smell and the Olfactory Arts

Description

Although the arts of incense and perfume making are among the oldest of human cultural practices, it is only in the last two decades that the use of odors in the creation of art has begun to attract attention under the rubrics of 'olfactory art' or 'scent art.' Contemporary olfactory art ranges from gallery and museum installations and the use of scents in music, film, and drama, to the ambient scenting of stores and the use of scents in cuisine. All these practices raise aesthetic and ethical issues, but there is a long-standing philosophical tradition, most notably articulated in the work of Kant and Hegel, which argues that the sense of smell lacks the cognitive capacity to be a vehicle for either serious art or reflective aesthetic experience. This neglect and denigration of the aesthetic potential of smell was further reinforced by Darwin's and Freud's views of the human sense of smell as a near useless evolutionary vestige. Smell has thus been widely neglected within the philosophy of art. Larry Shiner's wide-ranging book counters this tendency, aiming to reinvigorate an interest in smell as an aesthetic experience. He begins by countering the classic arguments against the aesthetic potential of smell with both philosophical arguments and evidence from neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, history, linguistics, and literature. He then draws on this empirical evidence to explore the range of aesthetic issues that arise in each of the major areas of the olfactory arts, whether those issues arise from the use of scents with theater and music, sculpture and installation, architecture and urban design, or avant-garde cuisine. Shiner gives special attention to the art status of perfumes and to the ethical issues that arise from scenting the body, the ambient scenting of buildings, and the use of scents in fast food. Shiner's book provides both philosophers and other academic readers with not only a comprehensive overview of the aesthetic issues raised by the emergence of the olfactory arts, but also shows the way forward for further studies of the aesthetics of smell. Cover Acknowledgements Introduction Part I What Can the Nose Know? Overview Prelude 1 The Fear of Smell Interlude 2 The Neuroscience and Psychology of Smell I Interlude 3 The Neuroscience and Psychology of Smell II 4 Smell, Emotion, and Aesthetics Part II Smell Redeemed: Language, Culture, and Memory Overview Prelude 5 The Dialectic of Deodorization Interlude 6 Language, Culture, and Smell 7 Writing Smell 8 Odor, Memory, and Proust Postlude Part III Discovering the Olfactory Arts Overview Prelude 9 Toward a Total Work of Art Interlude 10 Sublime Stenches Interlude 11 Beautiful Fragrances 12 Perfume between Art and Design Postlude Part IV The Aesthetics and Ethics of Scenting Overview Prelude 13 The Meanings and Morality of Scenting the Body 14 Ambient Scenting, Architecture, and the City 15 Enhancing Flavors with Scents in Contemporary Cuisine Postlude 16 An Invitation to Discovery Bibliography Index