[3D] Mnemosyne’s Scent: The Shape of Scent

Read more about my chosen good and bad scents here.

Research

For this class activity, we are tasked to make a sculpture that reflects the good and bad scents that we have chosen. The shapes of the two scents must be distinct and they are to be interwoven together in the sculpture.

Here are some examples where the sculptures have two distinct visual languages:

Ideation

Process

A test piece – melted using a candle flame. For some reason, I was skeptical about the candle because I thought that the flame wouldn’t be strong enough to melt the plastic. I was proven wrong!!

Another test piece – Made slanted cuts halfway through the cup and melted them sliced pieces.

Pieces to represent my bad scent – Blackstrap molasses. Because the plastic container already had ridges on it, it is able to give a interesting texture when melted.

To represent the ointment (my good scent), I thought of using long and thin plastic. Here, I taped two pieces of Vitagen straws together. Due to their cylindrical shape, they are unable to bend smoothly when melted.

Hence, I decided to cut thin strips of plastic out of a bottle instead. Then, I gently bend the strips into shape while they’re hot.

Final Work

My sculpture consists of 2 components, the bulky body that represents molasses (bad scent) and the thin sharp strips that sprout from the body which represents ointment (good scent).

Molasses is represented by the body of this sculpture. As molasses has a heavy scent, it is represented by the body of the sculpture, which is the dominant component of the entire sculpture. The shape of the body is scrunched up because that’s the face I make whenever the sour middle note hits me. Parts of the body are burnt white to represent the opaque and thick consistency of the molasses. It also represents the sweet base note, which makes up most of the scent. As for the bitter top note, it is represented by the burnt edges at the top of the sculptures.

In contrast to the dominant and bulky body of the molasses, ointment is represented by sharp and thin transparent strips of plastic. As ointment has a spicy/minty and herbal scent, it cuts through the air like an invisible sword, hence the plastic strips are made to be sharp, thin and transparent. The plastic strips are curved and positioned them such that they are pointing in different directions, this is done to represent their lingering presence.

Image sources

Lee, K. (2017). Crafting with PET Plastic Bottles – Page 4 of 5 – Crafting a Green World. Crafting a Green World. Retrieved 8 October 2017, from https://craftingagreenworld.com/2011/08/25/crafting-with-pet-plastic-bottles/4/
Cite a Website – Cite This For Me. (2017). I.pinimg.com. Retrieved 8 October 2017, from https://i.pinimg.com/originals/87/a2/44/87a24432d71fc2ebe2e987c3b68c649e.jpg
Seward, M. (2017). Artist is Helping the Environment by Turning Plastic Waste Into Amazing Sculptures. Top13. Retrieved 8 October 2017, from http://www.top13.net/plastic-sculptures-aurora-robson/
Amandine Drouet – Artist | Plastic Bottle Sculptures. (2017). Amandinedrouet.com. Retrieved 8 October 2017, from http://amandinedrouet.com/?portfolio=plastic-bottle-sculptures
Thantapalit, P. (2017). Colorful Jellyfish. pixibition by poramit. Retrieved 8 October 2017, from http://pixibition.weebly.com/colorful-jellyfish.html