Protected by anonymity the ex-police officer talks freely about the changing aspects of violence in New Zealand.

The text is combined with an imaginative account of the early European settlement of NZ. The settlers’ journey and subsequent description of the city skyline visualizes how the secret folds of the newly created city and environs contribute to the citizens concerns. With reference to Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, the settlers cut down the trees and expose bare hills which echo their words.

I mapped the officer’s voice and gestures to ASCII and mediated world events relating to terrorism spanning the time period 2001- 2008,

Concept, Directing, Filming, Editing, Programming, Animation : Raewyn Turner

Sound Chord: Eddie Rayner

duration                   12.56 minutes

Oct -Nov, 2011

At Monell Chemical Senses Center I’m researching unconscious sensing of human smell signatures for art works with a focus  on developing the human as a sensing instrument. My premise is that the whole of nature is communicating with olfactory signals largely disregarded by humans despite their effects on human behavior and emotions.

My intention in visiting Monell was to find out what could be in the human plume and if we have olfactory receptors to monitor humans and the environment even if we may not have reached a level of recognition.

As Dr Reed  succinctly puts it ‘we’re studying how we smell and how we smell’

Thanks to Dr Gary Beachamp, Director, Monell Chemical Senses Center for inviting me to the Sponsors meeting where I gained an overview of the latest research at Monell. Dr Beachamp’s illuminating reflection on the central problem of olfaction  : ‘how does a molecule manage to affect consciousness?’ amplifies my belief  that the realm of olfaction is ripe for creativity because its territory is largely uncharted.

Many thanks to Dr. Danielle Reed  who hosted my residency. Daniel invited me to the Monell Center,  organised the residency, and picked me up from the airport in the middle of the night and even provided me with a bag of scrumptious midnight feast goodies–much appreciated after long flight!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX7LvKO9txc

Sensing Stress

I asked Gaza correspondent Julie Webb -Pullman journalist for Scoop about the smells of stress that she encounters in conflict areas. Julie reported back  ”its like machine oil, a kind of heavy slightly metallic oily smell – heavier than that smell that comes out of the sewing machine, but not quite as strong as used engine oil or axel grease, but that kind of smell – if there was a range with sewing machine oil at one end and axel-grease at the other, it would about 85% towards the axel grease end, with a sharp/sour sweat edge….”

Dr Charles Wysocki : Stress alters body odour, and is detectable by smell—what we don’t know is if you smell body odour from someone who is stressed do you become more stressed? Post-traumatic stress can also be elicited by smells that people were exposed to in traumatic situations—in some cases the smells will elicit fear, eg Diesel.

One’s DNA for the genes involved in creating signature odours from the skin  and olfactory receptors can be analysed, but the data is not conclusive. There’s not only a genetic variation in the the biological receptors of each person but also variation on both perceptual data and molecular descriptors of fragrance materials….so it isn’t yet possible to predict how people may or may not experience smells.

Matt Kirkey – weighing the mass of DNA. Matt –whose desk was next to mine in the laboratory at Monell offered a very  simple explanation of  genotyping and DNA: DNA is the recipe.

On sniffing the wind of the molecular genetic revolution  and the interpretation of genetic information: Peter R Wills, in Life Requires Genetic Representation and vice versa-Consequences for ALife, writes  : No matter how refined a description of a cell’s molecular biology may be, if it implicitly assumes that the specificity of molecular biological processes originates solely in genetic sequence information then it fails as a scientific  explanation because it gives no account of the origin of the means of interpretation of the information…

Dr Joel Mainland’s research goal is to develop a predictive model relating molecular structure and olfactory perception using a combined psychophysical and molecular approach. I’m excited about Joel’s quantitative analysis research and finding patterns in molecular descriptions; although its not qualitative it somehow reminds me of  qualitative cross-sensory translations of visual patterns into music, eg those at Paso del Zute

At Paso del Zute   in Granada, Spain, I experienced José L. Rojas’s unique and brilliant  translations of perceptual data into patterns that could be played by the audience on real instruments.

Could we assign a colour, a sound, a flavour, a texture, a temperature, a weight to each molecular descriptor?      C. Jaen’s research into Sterogenisis—oral chemosensory analysis—suggests the ability to perceive and recognize the form of an object using tactile cues—words, text, in the mouth

I will begin by ‘sniffing out’what we may or may not be able to smell of the molecular behaviours: intensity, threshold, pleasantness, quality

Smell to Sound Device

http://vimeo.com/35656353

We will test smells that wouldn’t be readily recognizable,  as well as compounds that elicit specific anosmias as outlined by Dr Charles Wysocki; Dr Wysocki mentioned Albert Blakeslee’s study in 1930’s –people can’t smell some varieties of freesias. An earlier study in 1918 found similar in people smelling verbena flowers…other known anosmic compounds are:

• Androstenone
• Benzy salycialate
• Galaxolide
• Geosmin (musty)
• Isovaleric acid
• Jegers ketal ( woody amber)
• 3-methyl-2-hexemoic acid (underarm sweaty odour)
• 3-hydroxy hexanoic acid ( human sweaty)
• muscone ( musky)
• pentadecalectore  (musky)
• skatole  ( fecal odour)

I’m interested in fugitive smells, in particular beta ionone and the smell of violets. Some people are anosmic to beta ionone at certain concentrations.  The French Bonapartists chose as their emblem  the violet . The French government fought, by decree on and off, until the year 1874 any reproduction of a violet because it was the symbol of the Bonapartists.

I worked on a video on memory and anosmia while at Monell Chemical Senses Center –hoping to finish it soon. Yukiko who appears in the film couldn’t smell violets.

Two aspects that Dr. George Preti pointed out about non-odiferous olfactory molecules:

• We don’t notice volatile organic molecules unless they become irritants –they don’t affect/bind with olfactory receptors—
• They may be at below olfactory threshold because the volatility is at a very low level, ie, very few molecules present.

Taste smell integration: can smell below-threshold if used with a sweetener as this is an integration (Dr.Pamela Dalton)

The sound

Thanks to Dr Rocky Parker studies the role that steroid hormones play in the production and perception of chemical signals. Rocky suggested that we use the pentatonic scale for the music because its cultural sound that is suitable for improvisation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Also of interest is   A Fruity Note: Crossmodal associations between odors and musical notes  by   Anne-Sylvie Crisinel and Charles Spence    …”Indeed, in a recent study, Mesz et al. (2011) asked a number of musicians to improvise short pieces of music in accordance to taste words (bitter, salty, sour, and sweet)…..The words elicited consistent and reliable musical patterns.”

It is what it isn’t

Fugitive smells: Dr Glen Golden is testing the quality of smell, ie its character to see if its true that smells change their quality at different concentrations, eg cinnemaldehyde, diphenal methane.

Cinnemaldehyde: when  there are changes in intensity it changes from geranium floral at low concentration to orange at high concentration.

If this (floral—low conc)means that(orange –high conc)

And that indicates those (cinnemaldehyde)

Then after a while if you’re given those (cinnemaldehyde)

At low concentration, and it smells to you like that(floral)

Then you’ll associate this (floral) with that (orange)

Then if those (cinnemaldehyde) is actually half as much as that(orange)

Even though they’re the same

That(orange) won’t mean this (floral)

Sniffing humans

I asked Dr. George Preti  about methods of training myself to detect unconscious and below-threshold human skin vapours, with a view to recognizing olfactory signals expressed by humans, like fear, disappointment, etc.

In terms of science, olfactory comprehension seems to be gridlocked by the complexity of  interaction between olfactory receptors and the odour molecule and so the central problem of olfaction remains: how the olfactory molecule manages to affect the brain, consciousness and emotions. The mystery of olfaction offers a new arena of discovery. We are all sniffing in the revolutionary  wind of  genetics.

Dr Preti  prepared a GCO  Olfactory Gas Chromatograph session so that I could use my nose to detect human skin vapours emitted from a column—specifically skin extracts from  ten older Caucasian women, and qualify my experience of them by

1. naming the qualities
2. noticing the feelings that arose in me in response to them.

I  was wondering which smells I would miss because the experience is not continuous its interrupted by the breath in and the breath out. I look at my notes about an ephemeral experience and the descriptions are all ‘things’….

About feeling breathless

I feel breathless about being in America– the accents, the expressions, the food, the architecture…

When talking about background odours with Dr. Pamela Dalton she pointed out that  familiar background odour is only noticed when there is a change. I realized that I was feeling breathless in part because  my familiar background of odor had been replaced with the one in Philadelphia.

What matters to the sensory system is change and contrast, so when background odours disappear it gives us a feeling of  ‘a diminished saturation of the world’ ( Dr Pamela Dalton).

Municipialities and city councils regulate emissions in permissible odour units (PELS) which determine the thresholds.

The local nasal ranger detects and records odours from a site using a: At a pig farm, for example the nasal ranger sniffs and monitors 12-16 hours per day, 7 days per week to make quantatitive odour data

Hogs

Cattle

Wood smoke

Car exhaust

Dead animal

Diesel

Silage

Grassy

 Champagne and Climate Change

At Monell I’ve become interested in the bite in the mouth, the cough, ( Dr Paul Wise ) the remedy (sweet cough mixture) , and carbonation.

What relationship is there between carbonation in the mouth,  acidification in the environment, and calcium deficiency ?

• The burning of hydrocarbons -coal creates heat  and CO2…

that precipitates into the ocean acidifying the seawater and rain on earth creating a calcium deficiency that affects the shells of sea creatures and the formation of birds eggs… life longs for calcium ( Michael Tordoff );

•When  calcium carbonate-is mixed with acid it forms CO2….

which is in carbonated drinks–fizzy beverages, soda water, beer and champagne CO2 diffuses into the mouth, human tissue is very permeable by CO2.

• The background of burnt hydrocarbons makes us cough…..

High CO2 levels = eroding seashores, rising in sea levels, warmer oceans, deformed birds eggs…

POD : a smell output device

Click here to view the embedded video.

I made a pod device in collaboration with Brian Harris with the intention of having a gadget to express olfactory material for art installations and also so that I could train myself in unconscious odours. I tested the pod device for both concentration and flow rate using a variety of smell compounds and materials.

Our pod is a device to deliver smell material on a stream of air, because one of the difficulties in olfactory art is finding ways to control dispersal. Its best delivered to the individual at nose level, so  I  was very interested to see  scientific devices constructed for lab experiments, and was excited to discover that most of the scientists that I visited at Monell are engaged in hands-on creating of instruments and materials, eg olfactometers, sensors, steady electronically controlled air flows,  etc… collecting and storing smell compounds sourced from both natural and synthetics sourced from various corporate sponsors…..

Dr. Paul Wise‘s olfactometer – very much more precise and detailed than ours, but seeing this device reminded me that both scientists and artists start with a concept or question and then find material ways to explore it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Investigating suggestion and expectation in odour detection thresholds

“Like odorant detection, odorant discrimination can improve with learning and practice (Rabin 1988). Increased familiarization was associated with a decrease in discrimination errors of initially unfamiliar odors (Jehl et al. 1995). Odor enantiomers that were initially indiscriminable became discriminable after one of the enantiomers was associated with an electric shock (Li et al. 2008)…Finally, it is noteworthy that the two mechanisms of olfaction considered in this review are very different in macrosmatic mammals. Most mammals likely do have egocentric spatial abilities in olfaction (Rajan et al. 2006), and sniff at a frequency that may prevent change-blindness (Welker 1964). These differences may allow a form of olfactory awareness in macrosmatic mammals that is unavailable to humans. Thus, whereas human olfactory perception is dominated by the perceptual axis of odorant pleasantness to an extent that renders it nearly unidimensional (Yeshurun and Sobel 2010), the mechanisms we have highlighted here may allow macrosmatic olfactory perception that is far richer. All this, however, does not limit the influence of odors on human perception and behavior, both of which may in fact be more susceptible to the influence of subliminal than perceived smells.”

Human olfaction: a constant state of change-blindness. Lee Sela and Noam Sobel. Exp Brain Res. 2010 August; 205(1): 13–29. Published online 2010 July 7. doi: 10.1007/s00221-010-2348-6

Humans as rats: I had my first taste of rat food: it was SWEET! with a texture of pumice….. oh it reminded me of when I ate a whole pumice with salt, I was 6 years old and fascinated by the loaves and fishes story.

Dr Mike Tordoff  pointed out four different types of rat:

Lab rat  controlled

Pet rat  pampered

Food rat gets eaten

Wild rat gets trapped, killed or poisoned

Feeder rat—for snakes in pet shops

And the Hero Rat—trained to detect tuberculosis and landmines

This is a lovely pet rat–Jeffrey Masson’s blog on his Peaceable Kingdom experiment

I became a guinea pig in a dress rehearsal for a taste experiment kit, where the specificity of the design was tested : order, protocol and timing .The smell in taste disappears with a nose clip

II AI became a guinea pig And I became a guinea pig in an experimentCan’t smell anything with a 

I’m investigating the smog of humans…the unconscious smell of  I am  . This is towards sensing the human plume which carries the remnants of human emotions and the labour of the body.

From : Measuring Smells Haddad, Lapid, Harel, Sobel  ”How do the olfactory molecules do their business? … raises the possibility of generating  an olfactory metric  using an external odour measuring device, regardless of the device’s mode of action…to summarize, to date there is no agreed-upon olfactory metric that enables universal odorant comparison“…..

In October 2011 I’ll be doing an artist residency at Monell  science centre, dedicated to interdisciplinary research on the senses of taste and smell, Philadelphia.  My time at Monell will be of great  benefit to my research  into unconscious sensing of human smell signatures for art works that test new ideas in cross-sensory olfactory perception.

Together with Brian Harris assisted by Chris Davison we’re  making a device that will breathe in the smell of and around humans, the general atmosphere that humans breath in which resides within them, and express those vapours as piano chords.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The device will take in olfactory molecules through 4 sensors. Rather than trying to isolate  each smell from its background, the VOC  volatile organic compound sensors we chose  are ones used in air quality control, ferment process control, industry,  and in breathalysers. We’re using metal oxide detectors to detect CO, Co2, Alcohol and Hydrocarbon,  which will also respond to  vapours other than the ones they’re intended for.

I hope to expand my experiment to include specific human smell signatures, although what is implied from recent findings about our olfactory sense is that each person’s ability to smell is different–as individual as a fingerprint.  Unlike sensory material for the eyes and the ears each individual’s array of olfactory receptors is determined by their genes; olfactory interpretation will be genetically swayed by what is received/perceived.

The experiment is to sample and process the anthro-, geo-, bio- and synthetic smell environment as a whole;  the transparency of fences is afforded by small glimpses in between the palings while in motion, giving a view of the whole scene hidden from view. Interrupted olfaction…..

I’m investigating the human as a sensing instrument: The whole of nature is communicating with smell as are we.

So what do humans smell of? According to Professor Jim Al-Khalili in The Secret Life of Chaos, a BBC Documentary humans are mainly made of Air , Water, Coal and Chalk plus a few other minerals. As well as this many new synthetic flavours and fragrances are being created from novel materials which may be taken up into the human body and expressed in the human plume.

To select which materials I should use for the smells of Air , Water, Coal and Chalk I made a diagram linking them together in a hydrologic system of transpiration and evaporation of the water cycle.

Water evaporates into the AIR (along with gases which produce steam and Co2 and heat during combustion kerosene, hydrocarbons, petrol, natural gas, solvents, parrafin, LPG,  from the surface of the sea)..is precipitated in the raindrop which falls to earth on the land and plants, creating COAL  which is the remains of trees and plants on land over millions of years. Coal when combusted creates carbon monoxide and is found compressed under the earth as CHALK, the remains of the shells and skeletons of millions of creatures  over millions of years is found compressed under the ocean –and which produces CO2 when acidified, and is mainly in the seaWATER which has the ability to change consciousness along with alcohol, ethanol, scent, flavour, medicines, tinctures, marker pens and hand sanitising gels.

air = gases and the effects of combusted hydrocarbon in the air

water = alcohol–ability to change human consciousness

chalk = calcium carbonate…;  When mixed with acidic sea water forms carbonic acid that has a corrosive effect on the shells of sea creatures.

 coal = humans need energy —-from the industrial revolution energy from the consumption of hydrocarbons has increased the levels of co2 in the atmosphere; when coal and fossil fuels are burned they produce co2 and heat

To enable me to calibrate each machine so that the sounds it makes will be tuned at a particular audio frequency, I sang the visual/audio pitch that I experience in my body in response to the smells.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ll tune the sounds to midi piano notes similar to those of Eric Satie’s Ogive No 2 which he wrote without bar-lines.

Big thankyou for support from Fulbright NZ and CoLab

Each piece of cake was individually flavoured eg apricot, apple, peach, steak, salmon, lemon, mushroom, banana, raspberry, onion etc etc etc……………………A big thankyou to Formula Foods a professional food technology company based in Christchurch, for their generosity in providing flavours.

Our focus is on food monocultures and fragrance/flavour biodiversity. We decided to utilize readily available food that would give a pleasant taste experience – the sort of food that is readymade and available in supermarkets and already had a positive hedonic value, eg sponge cake made with wheat flour.Food is fragranced and flavoured with an increasing diversity of synthetic flavours and fragrances which may be included in the human plume. We carried out taste tests comparing real food with the flavours and found that the synthetic flavours provide a visual ‘picture’ of the food in the mind’s eye. Our tastes are changing and adapting due to a vast diversity in fragrances and flavours being added to food. New associations are being made. More about the project here

We were originally designing a themed dinner and dialogue for the Eco Sapiens residency participants and friends, intended as a pilot leading to further cultural dinner events, so we started the project making pies.

We researched historic food ingredients and presentation, focusing on the creation of hand raised pies and sprung metal pie moulds.. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, pies were made in very elaborate shapes.

Using a limited pallet of wheat, rice, soy and corn, we started experimenting in Auckland. We wanted to get the flavouring to work and develop pastry recipes to create pie sculptures.

Flavouring the pies was a challenge due to the complexities of combining texture, fragrance, flavour and visual attraction.  We sought advice from award-winning chefs on recipes to create tasty pie fillings which we then adapted for the project( using soy instead of meat.)

.      Mrs Beetons  Everyday cookery 1880/Ivan Day Historic Food

.      Food staples /monocultures : wheat, rice, soy, maize,

.      Flavour/Fragrance diversity : Formula Foods

An example of one of the pies was where we’d used chicken, beef and bacon flavourings to substitute for bird flesh. The filling was mock chicken—a type of soy protein.

When the pie was opened we noticed a definite shift from the visual pleasure of the pie to olfacto/gustatory displeasure.

a BIG THANKYOU to House of Aroha for the Aprons –designed and printed by Rakai Karaitiana    http://www.houseofaroha.com/

After many months of driving up and down the highways shooting pylons–I’ve finished a no-budget video! This is a cross-sensory experiment synchronising the movement of the powerlines to the pitch of the violins. Mt Eden Dubstep Oh That I Had Featuring Ruby Frost: Raewyn Turner’s STAVE is a translation of Mt Eden Dubstep’s ‘Oh That I Had’

Cross-Sensory visuals. Concept, Directing, Filming, Editing : Raewyn Turner. Technical assistance :Brian Harris

Published in:

•  “Example Olfactory Translations and Interpretations” . On Smell, The Third Issue of Performance Research, Vol.8, Nos.1-4, 2003, Performance Research, Dartington College of Arts, UK,

This issue of Performance Research explores the body and the senses in performance in four related issues.  It is jointly edited by Richard Gough, (editor and co-founder of Performance Research) and guest editor Judie Christie, Executive Producer, both of the Centre for Performance Research/University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK.

• MuVi 2007 International Foundation Artecittà Second International Congress Synaesthesia, Science & Art April 2007http://www.sinestesia2007.info/modules/tinyd0/index.php?id=4

A series of unwearable g-strings which I knitted from my Mother’s collection of mohair and hard-wearing wools, and fastened them together with haberdashery notions items saved during the Great Depression.

• PLUME an investigation of the Human Plume in collaboration with Richard Newcomb, molecular biologist
• ReSense, a collaboration with Canadian electronics artist Diana Burgoyne.

ReSense

11th September 2011:    ReSense Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington, NZ. Installation Documentation

Our collaboration began in New Plymouth at SCANZ 2006 where we discovered a mutual interest in integrating cross-sensory experience into artwork. Our initial inquiry centred around whether we could consider the landscape as a map of smell and sound?

Click here to view the embedded video.

FLAP

Our second work shown at MiC Auckland NZ 2010 began with the  investigation of extraction of smell from our socks including GC-MS analysis of odours. We stand on the earth in our own spaces, we each carry the smell of place.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More:  collaborative projects with Canadian electronics artist Diana Burgoyne

In September 2010 Diana Burgoyne recently traveled to New Zealand so we could work together for our exhibition at MiC; her trip was supported by CoLab

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to go to the initial blog about the ReSense collaboration between Raewyn Turner( New Zealand) and Diana Burgoyne ( Canada)

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• PLUME : a collaboration with Richard Newcomb, molecular biologist. We’re exploring the power of olfaction.

My extracted DNA

Plume

We began our collaboration with  Crossing Wires Lab Not only would we perform the process of extracting human smell from clothing, and learn each other’s languages through a process of drawing and dialogue, but we made the laboratory a performance space, through incorporating interactive video and sound and actively engaging with our audience and invited guests.

I’m exploring unsensed human olfactory cues, and the smell of civilisation. I’m particularly interested in the olfactory imprints of emotional and physical states of people and their local environment. Drawing from his skills in molecular genetics and biochemistry, Richard is the project leader of the ‘Cybernose’ research  programme which aims to develop an artificial nose using biological odorant receptors from insects. The Cybernose is a technology that is being designed to support human smell sensing. Recent scientific evidence has shown that as humans, we are losing our sense of smell.  Although humans are increasingly ‘anosmic’ (the term for a lack of sense of smell) to most of the fragrances of our time, odours are being transmitted, received, translated and associated by all living beings in nature.

Since November 2009 I’ve become embedded within the Molecular Sensing team at Plant and Food Research, doing hands-on science, interacting with scientists, and practising art in a science setting. Jeremy McRae at Plant and Food Research has assisted me to reflect on the size and possible malleability of DNA material by guiding me through the process of extracting DNA,  We took blood samples from our arms and extracted the DNA from the samples. Jeremy has subsequently advised and directed me through several processes of hands-on cell assay and transfection with the purpose of working towards assessing ligands of biological olfactory receptors from humans.

I collected my own odour by wearing specially prepared socks and had the smell extracted and analysed by Robert Winz at Plant and Food Research, using HS-SPME-GC-MS (headspace-solid phase micro extraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry), a method which was developed to determine the profiles of volatile substances.

Our art + science project research involves finding out which compounds in human odour, both above and below threshold that human receptors can detect. We’re interested in investigating unconscious olfactory sensing; a very important part of that would be in finding out what it is in human body smell that human receptors can detect–or not….. so watch this space!!

Unwearables ( fabric, hand made beading, smell) I made these constructions from found items which had been stored in boxes during the Great Depression in Australia between World War One and World War Two. When opened, the boxes which were sealed and glued over with magazine pages revealed buttons saved from shoes, fuse wire, pieces of string,  reels of silk thread, hand made glass bead fringing from women’s dresses, used hand-made lace collars and cuffs, beaded silk chiffon and satin remnants.

I re-used these fragments to make a disintegrating artifact which directly references our own times.

Their  fragility and small size (8)  indicate that they’re not intended for wearing. Each piece has its own unique fragrance especially created for it.

Synopsis : Alexei’s use of sound (vocal writer) appealed to me because we could use a familiar popular song to be understood in a different way. By analysing the lyrics into Goethe’s Theory of Psychological Colour Combinations into  psychological states I could make a sequence of colours that linked to emotions expressed by the path of words.

Sound by Alexei Shulgin, Computer Animation assistance: Rolando Ramos

Made while at the ANAT masterclass, Alchemy, Australia 2000

Selected for fAf FineArt Forum International Screening Program