Smell Graffiti

As a part of my artist residency with Paraflows/Monochrom and Quartier21 in Vienna, Austria I've created a new form of street art using scent.

Step 1 Theory

Graffiti as a medium has remained largely unchanged since early humans were painting cave walls. The style and purpose has evolved over the centuries, but still nobody has successfully broken free of its visual nature. From this line of thinking smell graffiti has emerged. Harnessing modern chemistry and appropriating technology invented for industry I am working on a new way to make a statement in a public space.

Scent is interpreted by the limbic system which is very closely tied to emotion and memory. This leads me to believe that interacting with people using scent can potentially be a much more powerful medium than paint since people experiencing it can't help but react to it. The goal of this project is to realize the potential of smell as art and to explore different ways of using it to interact with people.

Comments

[othereb]

good info here makes me wanna paint!

[roushent]

What are you doing invading other sentient beings bodies  with chemicals?  Not good!

[DaveySprocket]

As someone who has to live a restricted lifestyle due to Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS), I totally agree. Yeah, I can see it's cool from an art perspective, but I already have to arrange my life around avoiding chemicals (I have to avoid public places at busy times due to there being more people and therefore more perfumes, e.g. no going to the cinema on cheap ticket days. Using public transport is impossible. Hairdressers are a big problem.... etc)
The thought of being ambushed by chemicals sprayed in public places is very disconcerting to me, as I can see the affect on my health within minutes. Be kind to people and the environment - after all, these chemicals also get washed down drains and into the environment. Us MCS people are nicknamed "human canaries" for good reason.

[lwjoestar]

"The phenomenon of multiple chemical sensitivities is a peculiar manifestation of our technophobic and chemophobic society.  It has been rejected as an established organic disease by the American Academy of Allergy and Immunology, the American Medical Association, the California Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, and the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology.  It may be the only ailment in existence in which the patient defines both the cause and the manifestations of his own condition." - Journal of Toxicology - Clinical Toxicology;  Ronald E. Gots, M.D.

Cool made-up disease bro.  Bet it gets you all the chicks.


What you have isn't a chemical sensitivity, it's paranoid schizophrenia.

[DaveySprocket]

Be kind and don't diss things that other people have to live with. Just because you haven't experienced it yourself doesn't mean it's not real. Recently a kid died from inhaling the solvents in Lynx deoderants. Do you think he was just paranoid schizophrenic? No, it was chemical exposure that killed him. If chemicals at large doses can kill, why do you think that at smaller amounts they can't make people sick?

[Puze]

I hope you nkow that it is not just the chemicals that will kill you when you spray deodrant into your mouth as your throat ca sweell up and then choke you. Its not all the chemicals and esters aren't poisonous at least not all, ever heard of vinegar, thats an ester

[lwjoestar]

 Throughout history, many people have died after inhaling large quantities of water.  Just think about what all that water you drink every day is doing to your body in comparison!

[DaveySprocket]

Incredibly, the effects of inhaling water are not the same as when it's drunk. Less incredible is the fact that things in the world exist that lie outside your sphere of experience.

[demolitionNerd]

I would disagree. While Dihydrogen Monoxide is generally viewed as safe inhaling it is only one of the ways it can kill you. For more check out dhmo.org, a site that is trying to get the word out on the very popular but not very well known toxic chemical.

[DavidKaine]

lol... you're funny

[icecreamterror]

Dose calling it Graffiti make you feel a little bit more cool? Cant see to many real graffiti artists switching to Street Perfumery....

[ilpug]

in the technical sense, its not graffiti. more like street art. really creative and unique, so it needs its own name. i dont see how this is that affective with just a few squirts. maybe use in combination with a graffiti tag or stencil that it relates to. maybe for that bigger smell you could somehow refill an old spraycan with it and then leave it somewhere with the valve open so it releases gradually and lets the odors permeate.

[shortone]

why not? you just have to appreciate the idea.

[icecreamterror]

Graffiti is a visual art-form FULL STOP. I can only see this being graffiti for people with synaesthesia! I just object to the use of the word Graffiti when the link is tenuousness at best. I love what the guy is doing, but I don't think its Graffiti.........

[shortone]

why do you think that graffiti is only a visual art form? why can't it encompass other senses as well?

[icecreamterror]

You can call a fish a cow, but you cant milk it.

[fireguard]

You've never milked a fish? :p

[shortone]

exactly, fireguard :D

[icecreamterror]

I cant talk to either of you when your being like this! :P

[shortone]

lol sorry

[NinjaSloth]

personnally i think it's a brilliant idea ^.

[shortone]

me too :)

[fireguard]

I agree! I am going to milk my daughter's fish first thing in the morning! Thanks!

[AutomaticActivity]

That would be a nice scent with which to bless the town

[matt_sawyers]

mmm Milk-fishyness

[frediojoe]

haha

[Oscar_Scheepstra]

Also, Graffiti is not something you look as in an art gallery. It is NOT the concept. The idea is pretty nice - but I saw it on a similar way. Some paint manufacturers are putting some scents so your house wont smell like paint for a few days. Also, there are the allergy issues. You could maybe try to develop the idea more - i like the concept, but it is still weak.

[Eirinn]

It sure could be, it's an art form as anything else - however it's often being done be anarchistic artists - i wouldn't mind seeing graffiti in a museum (it's just not the way the graffiti culture works).

[ilpug]

you might want to google CansFestival

[AbstractDragon]

Ah, there actually is graffiti in museums. Several, in fact. There was a big exhibit at the Gutenberg awhile back. 

[radiobath]

Graffiti is unauthorized writing or drawing on a surface. Even though it's not writing/drawing, I'd still consider it graffiti, as it's unauthorized, and scent can bother a lot more people than a bit of spray paint. Ever got onto a crowded bus or train and someone decided to marinate themself in the cheapest perfume earlier? OP: I really, REALLY love the idea of fresh cut grass on the subway. In Boston, all you can smell is piss, sewage, stale air, and garbage. And that's ABOVE ground. If you could bottle sunshine and fresh air, I'd get a crop duster and cover the entire city.

[dudeguy1234]

No, vandalism is unauthorized writing or drawing on a surface. Graffiti can be legal, e.g. permission walls and things of that nature.

[lorrwill]

I work with someone who douses himself with the most god-awful cologne on a daily basis. So I agree, the power or scent can be astonishing.

[icecreamterror]

The only link this has to graffiti is the notion that a Aerosol, and no permission = Graffiti (a fallacy IMHO)

Graffiti is a artform that unfortunetly is being diluted by "street artists" with little knolage of the craft that is free can Graffiti.

You just have to look at how Stencil art has now become known as Graffiti buy the ill informed populace.

[jorjslippich]

says the person with a stencil inspired graphic as their main picture. i mean no disrespect, but i take issue at the comment that stencil art is not graffiti. i don't know if you are saying that because you don't consider it as free as non-stencil graffiti in terms of form, or what the basis of that comment was. but there is stencil graffiti out there that is just as intricate and powerful as some of the best large non-stencil works. again, no disrespect intended.

[icecreamterror]

My picture is based on a Shepard Fairey Screen print poster...not a "stencil". Stencil art is just that, "Stencil art". But you can call it "street art" or "guerilla art" if you want, you can even call it Fine Art....But you cant call it Graffiti. This is illustrated by some of the biggest names in the game that don't call themselves Graffiti artist, Shepard Fairey, Blek Le Rat, SWOON and so on....they are street artists. I like Stencil art, and your right it can be just as intricate and powerful as free can work.

[Lithium Rain]

"Graffiti (singular: graffito; the plural is used as a mass noun) is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property."

[icecreamterror]

So all paintings are graffiti......as the canvases are someones property?

[Lithium Rain]

If you want to get in silly linguistic games, then (technically speaking) yes. Technically, you're an animal. Technically, you eat rotting organic matter (either plain-old dead bodies or, if you're vegetarian, rotting plants) every day of your life, since dead things start to decay the minute they cease to live.

I think the meaning is quite clear from the definition. 

[icecreamterror]

Well as long as I'm right.

"If you want to get in silly linguistic games" - dont see whats silly about it, and it a amusing response from someone posting a wikipedia quote......