Scent and Shopping

1. Cultures of Scent
a. Food
i. domesticity, the hearth, cooking
b. Perfume
i. the boudoir, sensuality, lovers, cosmetics
c. Incense
i. worship, the occult, the gods
d. Streets
i. city aura, identifying scent defining place in memory
e. Decay
i. disease, miasma, unsanitary conditions, decomposition, bodily
functions
f. Auratic nature of these scent cultures
i. Aura, authenticity, and problematic nature of the concept
(place?) (Benjamin)
g. Scent architecture as feminine
i. historically- domesticity, the hearth, the boudoir, as female
realms
ii. scent as particularly characteristic of the interior (though it also
applies to cities, microscenting traditionally occupies interior
spaces) (Betsky)
2. Deodorization
a. Hegemony of Vision
i. Visual architecture as masculine- erecting rational forms
ii. perspective construction- the mechanics of vision
1. Conception of a building as a distant structure, not as
interior spaces with materiality and multi-sensory aspects
iii. rationalism- predominance of mind and idea over sensual
experience (platonism)
iv. modernist pure form- the aesthetic of deodorization
1. implications for the subject- designed for a faceless,
odorless user (vs. designing a palace that exudes the aura of
the inhabitant- Aamodt)
v. condemnation of scent as carnal, baser sense
b. French Enlightenment deodorization of the city (El-Khoury)
c. Modernist elimination of odor, white walls
d. HVAC offering an escape from the stench of the streets
e. The loss of aura that accompanied the deodorization process
3. Re-Odorization
a. the shift from natural marketing scents to artificially manufactured scents
for intentional marketing
b. the shift from "odorless" space to intentionally communicating designed
scent space
c. re-emergence of scent acceptability, but in a new, processed (optimized)
form
 i. realization of scent's power to define place (Pallasmaa, Thomsen,
Lindstrom)
ii. rationalization & control of scent through technology, marketing
studies
d. the search for a new aura raises questions of authenticity
4. Scent and Shopping
a. Scent-marketing
b. Scent design technology
c. Types of Scenting (note- scent resurrected without decay)
i. Subliminal scenting
1. Subtle Incense and Perfume?
ii. Brand-Identity scenting
1. Incense
2. Perfume
3. Street? Scent-defined place
iii. Evocative scenting
1. Food
5. Implications
a. Aura and Authenticity
i. Perceived loss of aura/authenticity with the deodorization trend
1. What was lost?
2. Is something really lost or is it only perceived to be lost?
Was it ever really there in the first place?
3. Falling victim to nostalgic sentimentality?
ii. Attempts to regain/recreate the lost aura/authenticity by retail
firms
1. Is it really a recreation of what was lost, or only seems to
be so? Only a simulation of something/ a marketing ploy?
2. Was anything really lost in the first place?
3. What's different about the scent machines vs. the old
smells? The new aura vs. the old? What is lost/gained, if
anything?
a. The resurrection of scent without decay- eternal
scent
b. Artificial creation of decaying corpse odor- but,
used to train against: proves the rule
b. Optimization of designed environments
i. Market research: treating the individual as a member of a
demographic group
1. Designing a profit-maximizing environment: what are the
implications of this? Vs. designing a pleasure- or
satisfaction-maximizing environment? Are these essentially
the same, or are there important distinctions because of the
goals of retailers in using this medium?
2. Optimized air, eternal scent