>[!NOTE]+ Meta Author:: [[Laila Al-Hamad]] Reference:: https://garlandmag.com/loop/scent/ Date:: [[2020-11-18]] Tags:: #warp/talk #smell #Arab WeftLinks:: [[Reinventing the Wheel]] ### Summary <div style="display: block; position: relative; width: 100%; height: 0px; --aspect-ratio:9/16; padding-bottom: calc(var(--aspect-ratio) * 100%);"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.be/embed/nsyaK9maRVs" allow="fullscreen" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; height: 100%; width: 100%;"></iframe></div> ### Learnings from the presentation Smell is a way of perceiving time and space "Scent is a medium for storing memories and accessing emotions. Its ephemeral nature makes it seem fleeting, and yet olfactory rituals build temporal and spatial structures. They define space and time." The Arab trade in aromatics arose because of two factors: a focus on trade due to decline of agriculture; and its location at the crossroads of Asia, Levant and Africa. Incense was initially used in religions rituals to transport prayers to the gods. It had the additional value of air purification. Eventually it also became a symbol of wealth. Early Christians associated incense with paganism, while the Prophet Muhammad identified nice smells with purity. Aromatics developed in Arabia with developments in distillation. The craftsmanship in making incense burners became more refined. Today, scene it ubiquitous in Arab life, particularly in social rituals: "Rituals of hospitality begin and end with scent. You welcome a guest with the burning of incense. You also bid him goodbye with the same ritual. It is a way to mark time; hospitality has a limit, and the good guest will not overstep his boundaries. It is a form of respect but also of generosity; people often offer their best incense to guests; it is a financial investment, an honor of a kind." Scents can be layered. There has been a decline of interest in the crafts associated with smell today. Scents have become increasingly commodified and frankincense tapping has lost its cultural value. ### Learnings from the discussion 33:00 Sigrid van Roode said that smell plays a role in rites of passage such as wedding to protect those in between states 37: 00 [[Sachiko Tamashige]] said that In [[Japan]], kodo, the way of incense, is a playful practice like wine tasting. It is associated with storytelling and they talk of "listening" to smell. Smell connects to the hippocampus which has a strong value of memory. 41:00 LOkesh Ghai showed a Rabari dress that had spices woven into it to protect it from insects. #India 49:00 Joseph Ndione said that in #Senegal, smell has a strong erotic value used by couples at night. 51:00 Mel Young has drawn the use of incense learnt when teaching in UAE to structure her own online teaching. In Australia, the popularity of Pears soap relates to the history of frankincense. #Australia 59:00 In France, [[Benjamin Lignel]] stated the smell is often charged racially in France. #France ### Further thought How else are the senses valued differently across the world? The object that dispenses the smell seems to play an important role in fixing its meaning, particularly in the religious context. It would be interesting to compare frankincense with the crafts that use #lacquer, as a liquid extracted from trees. Can we develop an aesthetics that includes a wide range of senses, including not only sight and smell, but also sound, taste and touch? How can the power of smell to ritually bind us together be revived? Further reading Ackerman, Diane. 1991. __A Natural History of the Senses__. Vintage. Han, Byung-Chul. 2017. __The Scent of Time: A Philosophical Essay on the Art of Lingering__. John Wiley & Sons. 'The Fragrant Clock' Corbin, Alain. 1986. __The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social Imagination__. Harvard University Press.