DESIGN NAME: Osmothèque
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Installation
INSPIRATION: We have become oblivious to many things around us. The piece wants to make people stop and see what is going on around us on a technological level. Playing with our senses, making us go back to our roots and smell actively rather than passively. The installation is an experience, it tries to educate and also cause for reflection, debate, ideas about why and how we are evolving technologically. I wanted to create a piece that was graphically enticing and physically engaging. I wanted to make people think about something so common in a new way.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: A laboratory that translates whatsapp messages into smell. The laboratory is divided into two parts. The project proposes a space for experimentation and debate about our senses in relation to technology. Scent is not usually used within design, and the fact that Osmotheque uses scent in an analogical way with one's senses is something unusual for its kind.
It makes the participant empathise and rethink the way they are communicating with themselves and those around them.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: The first part consists in smelling a message along with its representation in the form of a graph and a smell. The participant is invited to read and interpret the message based on the fragrance they have in their hands. The second part of the installation allows the participant to create their own smell based on a message they have in their phones. They a choose emotions from each olfactive family depending on how they feel the message smells and turn this into a fragrance to take it home.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: The project began in Barcelona in April 2015 and finalised in June 2015. It was on show at Elisava School in October 2015 and at MOB in June 2015. (Makers of Barcelona)
FITS BEST INTO CATEGORY: Fine Arts and Art Installation Design
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: The structures for the installation were designed alongside a blacksmith. They are designed to hold the different graphic pieces that guide the viewer through the exhibition. The graphic pieces were designed by me, and the scents were supplied to me by a company specialising in scent marketing. The research started with figuring out the scent we use less when communicating, and thinking of an experience to bring these two, and highlight the way we are using technology.
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: The whole installation laid out side by side measures approximately 200 x 50 mm.
TAGS: smell, technology, innovation, installation, whatsapp, translating, laboratory
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: When we communicate 7% we say, 38% is tone, and 55% is non verbal (Albert Mehrabian) It is proven we communicate non verbally but we're more online. I surveyed 60 people: 80% communicated best with hearing, 10% with scent. I realised it's used passively not actively. Then a message from my dad for my birthday 1 week later made me see we use whatsapp with no emotion. My goal: bring emotion to un-emotion. With smell experts, I designed four olfactive families that decoded messages into smells.
CHALLENGE: The biggest challenge was to make something abstract accessible to an audience. I found that people actually enjoyed giving their whatsapp messages a real ‘voice’. As they could take it home it meant people were analysing words they may have not given so much thought, making the person more involved with something so common. As this hadn’t potentially ever done before, I had to design everything from scratch, something abstract, finding the correct way to storytel and make it accessible.
ADDED DATE: 2016-02-15 20:52:29
TEAM MEMBERS (1) :
IMAGE CREDITS: Image1: Jade de Robles Rossdale (Creative, Copywriter, Graphic Designer, Installation Designer)
Image2: Jade de Robles Rossdale (Creative, Copywriter, Graphic Designer, Installation Designer)
Image3: Jade de Robles Rossdale (Creative, Copywriter, Graphic Designer, Installation Designer)
Image4: Jade de Robles Rossdale (Creative, Copywriter, Graphic Designer, Installation Designer)
Image5: Jade de Robles Rossdale (Creative, Copywriter, Graphic Designer, Installation Designer)
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