For my fashion week item, I mainly gained inspiration off Jess’ unpleasant scent (Wine) and my pleasant scent (Medical Halls). What I found interesting was that Jess’ unpleasant scent actually smelled pleasant to me, hence I wanted to try and incorporate the 2 scents to create a more positive image.
Wine to me:
My part of the collection – Glove
Final Piece:
Reflections:
Our collection was modelled by Jess’ friend, Rachel Ng. She did a wonderful job of modelling our pieces. It was really fun to be teamed up with Jess as fashion is her strong point and as a collaborative effort, I felt that we managed to pull off our Mnemosyne project really well.
The plastic model is a combination of my pleasant (medical hall) and unpleasant scents (tea tree oil).
I modelled the (D) and (SO) after my pleasant scent.
The overall shape of the (D) is round and curls inwards as round shapes are often associated as being soft and friendly, like how I would feel towards the scent of medical halls. I remember eating lots of lotus roots in the herbal soups that my grandma would make for me, hence I modelled the (D) after the slightly bulbous shape of the lotus root.
^Lotus Root for reference
I would also eat lots of Huai Shan, a type of Chinese yam, in the soups my mum would prepare. Hence, I modelled the (SO) after the round pieces of Huai Shan. I pierced and wedged some of them together as I wanted to convey that idea of layering, just like in chinese medicine where they would layer different herbs together to treat the patient.
^ Huai Shan for reference
For the (SD), I modelled it after my unpleasant scent as tea tree oil has a sharp and strong scent that would hurt your nose when you smell it too closely, hence, my (SD) is tapered from sharp (tip) to wide (middle) and sharp again, to imitate that idea.
There isn’t much contrast between the (D) void and the (SD) void, making it slightly harder to distinguish. Overall, there could be room for improvement as there is very little voids .
Mnemosyne, the Titaness of Memory, is among the 12 children of the first born gods, Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth). Remembrance was an important skill as there were no other predated way of recalling in Ancient Greece as language had not been developed at that point in time. Hence, Mnemosyne was credited to be the one who gave humans the ability to converse and reason.
It was said that when people crossed over to the Underworld of Hades after death, they were given the option to drink either from the River of Lethe, which causes people to lose their memory when they reincarnate as humans again to learn the values they needed, or to drink from the Spring of Mnemosyne, to remember all their painful memories of their lifetime and proceed to live happily for all eternity.
Mnemosyne is also known for her legacy for her motherhood of the 9 muses whom were all fathered by Zeus . He wanted people to remember his victory over the Titans and went to Mnemosyne disguised as a shepherd with the intention of seducing her for the 9 nights they spent together before heading back to Mount Olympus.
The use of visuals can help us to retain pieces of information better by associating the information we want to remember with an image/character/object. Before researching on mnemonic devices, I still had trouble remembering how many days are there in all the 12 months of the year but with the image attached above, it’s easier to associate the higher archs (knuckles) to 31 days and the lower archs (between knuckles) as 30 days.
Rhymes
Rhymes often have similar terminal sounds. Like in the attached image above, it shows how these words sound similar yet have vastly different meanings. Hence, they are easier to remember due to the acrostic coding in our brains.
Acronyms
An acronym is formed by using the first alphabet of every word that you want to memorise, and turning it into a phrase.
Olfactory
Here, I’ve linked a video to explain how olfaction works in conjunction to taste.
Method of Loci
Using location to remember certain information better. For instance, using landmarks to help remember information better on your way back home.
SCENTS
Pleasant Scent:
Chinese Medical Halls. Specifically, my grandmother’s medical hall.
I grew up practically in the Chinese medical hall my grandma used to own. To many people, they would shun away from it because they often find it too medicinal smelling but to me, it’s the smell of comfort.
Unpleasant Scent:
Tea Tree Oil
This happened just a few weeks back but I was dumb and didn’t know that you had to dilute tea tree oil in water before using it. Hence, I over-applied it topically and chemically burned my face. It was a hot blotchy mess and I now tea tree oil is dead to me (ok not really I’m exaggerating but you get my point)