My readings on the social construction of smells, scent, and olfaction brought me, again, to the astonishing work of the Norwegian artist, activist, and perfumer Sissel Tolaas. In a recent interview with the journal mono.kultur she talks about her motivations to analyze, recreate, and work with smell and scent. According to her, smell as a relational medium allows recognition as another source of knowledge that co-creates identity: scents can manipulate human beings in order to “establish or to maintain their class identity“ (Tolaas in mono.kultur #23, p. 11). In a footnote: also her interpretation of communism resembling the “stale air of imposed uniformity” (page 36 in “If there ever was (a book of extinct and impossible smells)” by Robert Blackson, Art Editions North/Cornerhouse, 2008) convinces that smell can be understood as a “socio-spatial construct and also a narrative” (Tolaas in mono.kultur #23, p. 27). Read more