"Scent back in time: how ancient odours can bring the past to life"
June 4, 2023 11:57 PM Subscribe
Article from Current Archaeology about Aroma Prime, a company which creates historical smells for museums, theme parks and care homes. Their products include the smells of dinosaurs, dodos, mummification, candlemakers, ether, vintage sweets and the Wicker Man.
I seemed to be able to access it several times (from the UK), but now it’s shut me out.
posted by Phanx at 12:37 AM on June 5, 2023
posted by Phanx at 12:37 AM on June 5, 2023
If you do get to read it, it's really interesting! Scent is a really underrated part of our sensory experience, and I find this kind of purposeful scent design fascinating.
posted by prismatic7 at 1:41 AM on June 5, 2023
posted by prismatic7 at 1:41 AM on June 5, 2023
Why does everything smell like chicken?
posted by fallingbadgers at 2:19 AM on June 5, 2023
posted by fallingbadgers at 2:19 AM on June 5, 2023
I know not one but two scent artists/researchers here in Amsterdam, oddly enough.
One is Frank Bloem (aka The Snifferoo) who constructs scents such as elephant scents (without using elephants), the scent of a harbor, etc and more abstract smells for art projects. He used to run Odoramas (named after the John Waters gimmick) in which he and other lecturers guided us through scents. I took a perfume-making workshop from him just last month.(my notes say I included ambroxide, musk, castoreum, vetiver, olibanum, myrrh, coumarine, aldehyde, ozone, neroli, petit grain, bergamot, cedar and black pepper in the perfume I made)
The other is Caro Verbeek who is a professor (Professor of Sensory History!) whose specialty is the history of sense, especially the history of how things smelled. She recreates (NPR interview) what things used to smell like. She has a book out (only in Dutch I think) on the history of the Nose.
The article linked in this post, btw, is on archive.is.
posted by vacapinta at 2:57 AM on June 5, 2023 [15 favorites]
One is Frank Bloem (aka The Snifferoo) who constructs scents such as elephant scents (without using elephants), the scent of a harbor, etc and more abstract smells for art projects. He used to run Odoramas (named after the John Waters gimmick) in which he and other lecturers guided us through scents. I took a perfume-making workshop from him just last month.(my notes say I included ambroxide, musk, castoreum, vetiver, olibanum, myrrh, coumarine, aldehyde, ozone, neroli, petit grain, bergamot, cedar and black pepper in the perfume I made)
The other is Caro Verbeek who is a professor (Professor of Sensory History!) whose specialty is the history of sense, especially the history of how things smelled. She recreates (NPR interview) what things used to smell like. She has a book out (only in Dutch I think) on the history of the Nose.
The article linked in this post, btw, is on archive.is.
posted by vacapinta at 2:57 AM on June 5, 2023 [15 favorites]
Their products include the smells of dinosaurs, dodos, mummification, candlemakers, ether, vintage sweets and the Wicker Man.
R-i-i-ight...
posted by y2karl at 3:07 AM on June 5, 2023
R-i-i-ight...
posted by y2karl at 3:07 AM on June 5, 2023
Fascinating article, thanks!
In the article they mentioned that AromaPrime sells "aroma cubes" to the public, and sure enough, they do, some of these are strangely specific, pear drops? Sure why not?
posted by jeremias at 4:10 AM on June 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
In the article they mentioned that AromaPrime sells "aroma cubes" to the public, and sure enough, they do, some of these are strangely specific, pear drops? Sure why not?
posted by jeremias at 4:10 AM on June 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
Goodness, jeremias, I hadn't looked at the company's site. Historical Glasgow, "The scent of ship building, smoke and industry" (or poverty and aspiration, arguably); Sea Monster, Mildew Tunnels, After Rain (Petrichor), Otter Pooh, Viking Forest, Attic, Pit Ponies, Trophy Room ...
posted by paduasoy at 4:58 AM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by paduasoy at 4:58 AM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
Oh, man...The artist in me is going crazy with ideas for integrating custom scents into installations, to confuse or shock. Some seriously interesting/challenging/confusing mashups of imagery and atmosphere.
Also...That Wicker Man rollercoaster looks like a helluva fun ride.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:13 AM on June 5, 2023
Also...That Wicker Man rollercoaster looks like a helluva fun ride.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:13 AM on June 5, 2023
Fascinating article! I have a nerdy interest in immersive theater and am always really pleased and excited when the set design addresses the sense of smell. It's such a powerful instrument in the immersive toolkit but until I read this article, it never occurred to me that so many other places, from scare experiences to care homes, could use these devices to good effect as well.
posted by merriment at 5:17 AM on June 5, 2023
posted by merriment at 5:17 AM on June 5, 2023
The Kunstmuseum in Den Haag has beakers with the aromas of Mondriaan's three studios (Amsterdam, Paris, and New York), equipped with hand pumps and signs encourage visitors to experience the cities. This was a collaboration with IFF Perfumes, so maybe Aroma Prime has competition in the Smell-O-Exhibit museum market.
posted by autopilot at 5:30 AM on June 5, 2023
posted by autopilot at 5:30 AM on June 5, 2023
In the article they mentioned that AromaPrime sells "aroma cubes" to the public
You can get any of their scents as cubes, oils for diffusion, or sprays! I want to spend allllll the money on these. Dungeon! Shipwreck! Haunted Manor!
posted by uncleozzy at 5:48 AM on June 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
You can get any of their scents as cubes, oils for diffusion, or sprays! I want to spend allllll the money on these. Dungeon! Shipwreck! Haunted Manor!
posted by uncleozzy at 5:48 AM on June 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
If you want to go really bonkers with essential oils, may I recommend a visit to the Liberty Natural website? For example, interested in chamomile? They offer nine different options. Ginger? Five options. There are also absolutes and concretes.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 5:49 AM on June 5, 2023
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 5:49 AM on June 5, 2023
You can get any of their scents as cubes, oils for diffusion, or sprays! I want to spend allllll the money on these. Dungeon! Shipwreck! Haunted Manor!
"Mmmm, I love the smell of napalm in the morning."
posted by jeremias at 6:46 AM on June 5, 2023
"Mmmm, I love the smell of napalm in the morning."
posted by jeremias at 6:46 AM on June 5, 2023
I went to the War Museum in London when I was a teen, and they had created a scent for the WWI trench exhibit: a tiny tight hall made to simulate a trench. It was not a good smell -- musty and damp -- but I remember thinking that it would have to have been much worse. The stink of feet, of unwashed laundry, of unpleasant food ... but I also knew that if it was really that bad, people would complain. I wonder if it was these guys -- I can't imagine there are a lot of competitors in their line.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:18 AM on June 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Countess Elena at 7:18 AM on June 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
Incidentally, I had just been reading an old Inspector Wexford novel from the early 70s where the detective has a memory for particular perfumes. It's not presented as a strange or fetishistic thing to know. It's just that many more women than today used to wear loud perfumes that didn't smell like anything but themselves, and they left trails, which would be of obvious interest to the police.
Old smells of being a teen: Exclamation! and Tribe. My own were Poison and Electric Youth. Now if I ever wear perfumes, they smell like one thing, or maybe two, and they're very light touches.
The old smells of grown women: powderpuffs of Youth Dew, White Shoulders, L'Air du Temps; hair spray; cigarettes; Juicy Fruit or Big Red gum to cover up the staleness of the cigarettes ...
posted by Countess Elena at 7:24 AM on June 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
Old smells of being a teen: Exclamation! and Tribe. My own were Poison and Electric Youth. Now if I ever wear perfumes, they smell like one thing, or maybe two, and they're very light touches.
The old smells of grown women: powderpuffs of Youth Dew, White Shoulders, L'Air du Temps; hair spray; cigarettes; Juicy Fruit or Big Red gum to cover up the staleness of the cigarettes ...
posted by Countess Elena at 7:24 AM on June 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
some of these are strangely specific, pear drops?
Oh, no, that one really does make sense, honest! Pear drops have a very distinctive smell (and taste), and I can absolutely see why someone might want to bottle it. Cube it. Whatever.
What I don't understand, though, is why the photograph on the pear drops page is of a handful of boiled sweets that are clearly not pear drops, which are pear-shaped.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 10:57 AM on June 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oh, no, that one really does make sense, honest! Pear drops have a very distinctive smell (and taste), and I can absolutely see why someone might want to bottle it. Cube it. Whatever.
What I don't understand, though, is why the photograph on the pear drops page is of a handful of boiled sweets that are clearly not pear drops, which are pear-shaped.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 10:57 AM on June 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
In the article they mentioned that AromaPrime sells "aroma cubes" to the public
I wish for a catalog of all the scents in the form of Scratch 'n' Sniff samples.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 12:52 PM on June 5, 2023
I wish for a catalog of all the scents in the form of Scratch 'n' Sniff samples.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 12:52 PM on June 5, 2023
I worked on museum exhibit that used another scent/aroma company. Exhibit smelled like a locker room. Authentic, perhaps, but not inviting.
posted by Ideefixe at 1:04 PM on June 5, 2023
posted by Ideefixe at 1:04 PM on June 5, 2023
Every once in a while I catch a whiff of something that smells eerily like Smurfberry Crunch and I get sent back ~40 years so fast I get temporal whiplash. goddamn i miss that cereal
posted by FatherDagon at 11:10 AM on June 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by FatherDagon at 11:10 AM on June 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
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posted by paduasoy at 12:12 AM on June 5, 2023