Category: Mnemosyne

003B Mnemosyne’s Scent

Pairwork

Chiharu & Jun Ming

Following 003A, we were to work in pairs to create a fashion accessory incorporating both planar elements and our scents. We started by observing both our planar and plastic bottle models and picking out elements that we liked. 

One of the elements that we ended up using was the dominant component of this sketch model. We felt that it would be interesting to include into our final piece because it plays with verticality.

 

Ideation

Next we did some sketches to help visualise our model better. We decided that the SD, which is the long strip that wraps around the dominant, would represent our scents.

Our initial sketches actually was of a different orientation (as seen below). When we were figuring out what sort of accessory we should make, we changed the orientation of our sketch, and found out that it worked better in a different orientation. It started to look like a headpiece, which explains the sideway head sketches.

 

Process
Planning our final piece using art card.

 

We faced challenges with every component due to our choice of materials. Bending wood required patience and teamwork as one of us had to hold the heat gun while the other shaped it. If we pointed the gun too close, we’d end up charring the wood or burning our partner. After bending, we decided to taper the end to make it seem like its disappearing upwards.

 

 

The piece of plastic below was originally going to be our SO, taking inspiration from Jun Ming’s unpleasant scent in his plastic bottle model.  However there were burnt parts which made it not aesthetically pleasing. We didn’t want to paint it because it would not have the same effect that we intended it to have. So we scraped this idea. We replaced the SO with a reflective mirror – like material instead to complement the other materials.

 

 

 

Acrylic rod bent with heat but it was difficult to control the curves. Sharp turns on the other hand were easy to create. It also would not stick to the wood nor base even though we tried many types of glue. Hot glue melted the acrylic and did not make it stick. In the end, we waited for the hot glue to cool a little before apply it to the acrylic, so that it wouldn’t melt.

 

Work in progress.

 

Final Model
Model: Jun Ming

 

Since we were to keep memory and scent in mind, the choice of materials was an important consideration that we made. We looked into transparent and reflective surfaces, because those elements are closely associated with memory and scent. For instance, mirrors may symbolise the threshold between reality and imagination.

The dominant wooden piece is the bridge that connects our scents.

The acrylic rod is our SD, and it is made of grouped planes. The portion with the broken plane represents Jun Ming’s unpleasant scent — the groundsheet — because his scent makes him remember his NS days. The words associated with it are rough, tough, uncomfortable etc. The curve plane is my pleasant scent — Vicks Vaporub, because I associate it with comfort.

The reflective SO reflects our scents into our memories (if that even makes sense).

We were also inspired by old vintage flapper hats, whereby the wooden piece is a replacement of the feather, and the swirl is a replacement of the rim of the hat.

 

We played with voids through the swirly acrylic rod. Our original intention was to let the the acrylic rod droop down to the face area to create interesting voids. However the piece was too heavy and would not hold so we had no choice but to improvise and stick it higher up.

 

 

Despite the challenges faced and the immense amount of patience required, this project was fun to execute!

Feedback given was to reposition the SO such that it casts a shadow / reflections onto the wood!

003A Mnemosyne’s Scent (Updated!)

Planar Exercise

This exercise required us to construct sketch models using a variety of planes, while keeping the dominant, subdominant and subordinate in mind.

Sketch Model 1

For this model I tried to think of verticality. The D, SD, and SO are of different heights. I decided to keep the D and SD as curved planes, and juxtapose it with a straight plane as the SO. The design is relatively simple, and the direction of the planes almost looks as though they are spiralling upwards. I wanted the volumes to cluster to one side of the page when we view from the top, instead of spreading them out.

Sketch analysis

Sketch model 1 is a revised version of the sketch model below. The D and SO were too big. The D has been adjusted to tower over the SD and SO, to add more interest.

 

Sketch Model 2

For this sketch model, I tried to incorporate complex-axis and broken planes. The overall composition feels heavy due to its emphasis on being horizontal. The S is a curve plane to juxtapose the broken planes. After analysing this composition, maybe it would have been more interesting if the one end of the D was not attached to the ground, or if it were attached at an angle.

Sketch analysis

This model is a reworked version of this earlier version. It was confusing because it had too many voids. There was lack of variation in the type of planes used too.

 

Smell & Memory

Olfactory art – art concerned with smell.

The part of the brain called the olfactory bulb is closely associated with memory and feeling, so smells can call up memories almost instantaneously. When we smell a new scent, it seems that we will link it to an event, person, a thing, or even a moment. Different scents mean differently to different people. The olfactory bulb has intimate access to the amygdala (part of the brain that processes information) and the hippocampus (responsible for associative learning), hence smell is capable of recalling memories and emotions.

Smell blindness / Anosmia : Some scents are  undetectable to some people. For instance, “75% of people can’t detect the distinctive grassy tang of urine produced following the ingestion of asparagus.”

Scent marketing is being used to put clients/customers at ease. Usually the scents are “imperceptible to the unwitting sniffer”.

Source: https://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/perception/smell3.htm

I found an artist that makes art using scent. New York artist Martynka Wawrzyniak did a hyper-personal self portrait. The scents she incorporated into her project Smell Me (2012) include a vial of her own tears and her sweaty workout shirt. Apparently she put actual biological oils extracted from her own body into ten glass vials. The audience would “enjoy” her scent through a scent chamber perfumed with synthetic versions of the oils.

Martynka Wawrzyniak’s ‘Sweat #5 (S5)’. Courtesy of the artist and envoy enterprises, New York

Source: http://theconversation.com/olfactory-art-makes-scents-and-who-nose-where-it-might-lead-us-25643

 

Plastic Bottle Model

unpleasant scent — Vinegar

This scent is linked to a relatively recent memory. Just a few months ago I suffered from pretty severe nausea due to stress, to the extent that it hindered my social activities. Though I learnt to control my emotions/stress and the nausea has subsided a lot, I am still sensitive to a lot of smells. Vinegar triggers a specific memory, a particular incident. I was out with someone that I liked, everything was okay until we decided to eat poke (the sashimi like salad thing). Unfortunately the vinegar triggered my nausea and it was so bad I had to excuse myself. The emotions I felt back then were some of the worst. I was upset that I spoilt the happy mood of the day and embarrassed with myself. I guess it had to do with my overall emotional state at that point in time too, so I over-thinked everything. Now whenever I smell vinegar, I remember him, this particular day and the emotions linked to it.

Pleasant smell — Vicks vaporub

This scent is linked to the nausea too. When it was really bad almost every smell just made me want to puke — even scents that were supposedly pleasant, like maybe desserts or something. My father came up with this solution which was Vicks Vaporub. Due to the menthol, this scent was extremely comforting. While some people associate it with being sick, I immediately feel more relaxed after application, hence it is pleasant to me!

Ideation

I thought of some keywords to describe each scent, and from there churned out visually descriptive words. After that I did simple sketch to help me visualise my final product.

 

Final Model

I experimented with a few pieces of plastic before arriving at my final model, because the plastic did not react the way I wanted it to when it came into contact with heat. The composition / arrangement was decided after I figured out each element was going to look like. Naturally, with an elongated strip juxtaposed with a round shape, I placed the round part on the lower third of the strip to act as an anchor.

Front view
Back view

 

The pleasant scent is represented by this flowery looking component. I tried to go for a curvy, wavy language that envelopes, since the word that I associate with the scent is comfort. The challenge that I faced was that it was difficult to control the strips as they were heating as the heat gun covered a wide area which cause all the strips to simultaneously curl. The overall shape of this component is round because it the scent is “contained“, to match the language of the strips.

 

The unpleasant scent is represented by this long strip. Because vinegar has a distinct scent, I felt that it needs to have presence, especially since the other component is already pretty wild looking. Hence I settled for a long strip. In order to convey “disgust“, I used the soldering iron to poke holes. I elongated the holes to follow the axis of the strip.