Surreal aroma's. (Re)constructing the volatile heritage of Marcel Duchamp

Abstract

No ‘visual’ artist addressed the sense of smell as often as Marcel Duchamp did. Whereas his solid objects can still be studied visually and textually, the scents he used have by now evaporated, and a vocabulary to describe them is lacking until today. What we have left are nose witness reports and the possibility to smell olfactory reconstructions. Rereading canonical text with a more sensory gaze and inhaling these historical fragrances, such as cedar, erotic perfumes and coffee, will enable us to reconstruct the olfactory dimension of our highly ocularcentric history of art.

On the use of ambient odours to influence the multisensory experience of dining

“…congruent with an outdoor café), and also the fact that it was specifically (and to some, recognizably) the smell of Brazilian coffee roasting perhaps referencing 1938 as the year in which the Brazilians joined the Surrealist movement (Verbeek, 2015(Verbeek, , 2018Verbeek & van Campen, 2013).…”

Scenting the Anosmic Cube: On the Use of Ambient Scent in the Context of the Art Gallery or Museum

“…At the same time, however, this smell was also semantically meaningful (Kachur, 2001). In particular, the smell may have been chosen both because of its incongruency with the interior setting of the gallery (at the time it would have been more congruent with an outdoor caf e), and also the fact that it was specifically (and to some, recognizably) the smell of Brazilian coffee roasting perhaps referencing 1938 as the year in which the Brazilians joined the Surrealist movement (Verbeek, 2015;Verbeek & van Campen, 2013).…”