Beyond words1:43
Beyond words1:43
Bodily ways of knowing help Christophe go beyond the limitations of an individual creator.
Christophe Laudamiel once described a perfumer as someone «who masters the behaviour and the perception of volatile molecules by the nose and the brain». Accordingly, a perfumer definitely knows how to create a perfume. Yet, this clip reveals the limitations of an individual creator. Practices of collective smelling and sense-making are needed to challenge and confirm the creative path. In this respect a scent development project serves as an extreme case: Verbal utterances account only for a small fraction of human communication. In addition, body language & posture, silence, gestures and face grimaces function as nonverbal feedback. At first sight, this clip might seem boring because there is not very much happening. At a deeper level however, one can notice the deep uncertainties a creator bears. Experiencing scents, sensing, and sense-making emerge mutually in active and reflective practices that have to cope with the paucity of language to describe scents and engage with bodily ways of knowing.
A conversation with the material3:53
A conversation with the material3:53
Learning raw materials a perfumery student begins to keep track of associations the smell of these ingredients may trigger.
Short entries in a spreadsheet capture descriptive remarks as well as similarities and comparisons between different materials. In this way a perfumer systematically builds up a network of associations that serve various purposes throughout a professional career. In the case of Christophe Laudamie, we often encountered how he maintained his knowledge base and made note of many new surprises by documenting them in his spread sheet. When searching for possible ingredients Christophe searches through the spreadsheet: «Papery» shows up roughly 30 times. Christophe narrows this down to a shortlist of 5-10 ingredients. He then goes to the lab: «Each bottle contains a whole world - a world by itself», Christophe once remarked. This video shows how Christophe explores the worlds of a few bottles and engages in a conversation with the materials on the shelves.
