Petrichor – Sculpture by Addé 2018
Petrichor
Humans have invented many forms of sensorial stimulation, some quite elementary, others far more sophisticated.
Following the example of Wilbur Scoville who invented a scale for the measurement of pungency, we can imagine creating scales for each sensorial stimulus, yet there would be no evaluation of what a stimulus, beyond sensation, is bringing in terms of emotion.
Among those, nature is giving us strong feelings such as the hushed silence of the snow, the pink frequencies of the sea waves, and this peculiar ethereal scent, almost a perfume, of the ground after the rain.
The term was coined by two researchers, Isabel Joy Bear and Richard G. Thomas in 1964 : Petricor.
Petrichor © Addé 2018 – photos Xea B.
Can a sculpture evoke a scent ?
Interesting. I had no idea anyone ever tried to measure the level of pugnancy.
Indeed, but it only measures it for buccal perception.
Once many years ago I had a revelation dream where many things were revealed to me, however pertinent to this post, a symbolic name was given to me through images, of an approaching desert thunderstorm, full of lightning, thunderbolts, wind, and the aroma of the dry earth being moistened by the falling drops so peculiar at the beginning of it.
Needless to say I was at lost to the name for a word didn´t exist, to describe such a thing, and searched for it all over the place until the advent of computers and found the recently composed word petrichor. 🙂
Naming is a very important matter. In some isolated cultures, people are “blind” to certain elements, such as colour, simply because they have no appropriate word for it. Dreams are essentially visual and sounds, quite rarely olfactive, and even more uncommonly evocative of a natural scent.
This dream must have been very impressive and remaining engraved in your memory.
I hope it was, all in all, positive!
Thank you for sharing.
Can a sculpture evoke a scent ?
… il n’y a pas de doute, celle-ci en est un parfait exemple.
Merci pour cette pièce enchanteresse.
L’enchantement est un état proche du ravissement, les fées sont la cause de ce dernier, mais le premier est oeuvre des sirènes. Belle transition!