listen to scent here & the six seconds frame

Listen
as we forge ways, 
new and old,
of delivering olfactory imagination
in conjunction with
other media
 
-Lura Astor

 
backstory of the Green Aria Scent Opera

 click here in this interview you will hear
perfumer Christophe Laudamiel
musician Stewart Matthew,
who played with Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurdsson.
Neil Yule of Flaktwoods,
the company who created the scent delivery system/organ for the
Guggenheim presentation
Lovely!

if you have trouble with the link, click here "Scent Opera"

Also Check Out
preview, reviews, backstory, music
on this site's posts -
May 4, 9
June 2, 4, 2009

illustration: Shimmer Lura Astor

theatrical 4th wall explorations continue

Some reviews and commentary
on the Green Aria Scent Opera
tickle me ... the description of
people pulling away from the scent microphones
when Funky Green Impostor
makes an appearance, with first whiff.

this memory floated in

Sitting in the back row of an historic
movie theater, 1973
3-D film production of Frankenstein
co-produced by Andy Warhol, Carlo Ponti and others, directed by Paul Morrissey

The first 3-D experience unfolds like this

we're sitting in the back row
a huge flock of bats fly, startlingly fast,
into the camera, continuing into the audience
everyone in the audience turns their head away
we are staring at a huge group of grimacing faces
collectively moving away from the birds
a collective gasp
a collective body giggle
human reflexes
and instinctual protection
in a theatrical frame
the usual audience of individuals, couples,
and small groups
changed into the collective

Green Aria - the reviews are in

Green Aria Scent Opera played to full houses at New York City's Guggenheim Museum this past weekend, 31 May 2009 and 1 June 2009.

Here is what the New York Times had to say, and it made me wistfully laughing to imagine hearing the voice from backstage telling the audience of who was replacing whom during the evening's performance.

In case you worried we were growing too staid in our fragrant likes, the evening's loudest ovation went to Funky Green Imposter, from all accounts exuding a faintly sulfurous odor. Is there anything faint about sulfur?

And, James Kohl would remind us that natural redheads drive people crazy in lust due to their exuding more sulfur. You can read his work in The Scent of Eros: Mysteries of Odor in Human Sexuality. Jim presented some of his work in the 1980's at seminars I put together in Las Vegas, Nevada; originally meeting him while a guest at a Mensa Toastmasters.

 I toss a fragrant bouquet to all involved in the innovative click Green Aria and hope you make it to Los Angeles, California, USA.

Here are Green Aria reviews from the
Wall Street Journal
Science & the City
New York Magazine
Time Out New York

Illustration: Green Bulb Lura Astor
 

Green Aria

Green Aria
storytelling delivered through scent and music

In this ScentOpera the scents will do the singing

The scents will tell the story as the audience is introduced to a new grammar, a new form of art.

The libretto, the written story and structure, encompasses chords of perfumes/scents. Music and sound design play a supporting role and will be precision coordinated with the release of scents.

HOW?

Each seat is outfitted with a scent microphone. As the scents are inhaled, the human body will play them. Each scent will have complex chords of scent with the unique capacity to carry symbolic and associative meanings and memories.

For example, some scents may be associated with tastes, others with flavors. Some are recognizable - the smell of fresh air or smoke, others, though less definable, become so through conditioning and context.

In click Green Aria the scent libretto will evoke associative meanings as well as create new meanings defined within the context of the unfolding narrative.

As of today, both performances on each day, May 31 and June 1, are sold out. Bet the performance gets another go round.


Stewart Matthew collaborates with renowned fragrance designer Christophe Laudamiel and composers Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurdsson.

click here: Music from some of the musicians - starts in at minute two 

Illustration: Green Secrets Lura Astor

NYC end of May Scent Opera

The Guggenheim Museum in New York City, a magical place, one of the few places to experience the vertical spiral. Thrilling as a kid seeing playful Calder wire circuses.

SCENTOPERA
31 May 2009
1 June 2009
NYC
The Guggenheim 7:30 PM & 9:30 PM
(to date, the 7:30's are sold out)

WORLD PREMIERE & WORKS & PROCESS COMMISSION
The ScentOpera introduces a new art form created by Stewart Matthew based only on smell and sound.

send me reviews, photos, programme, smells!
I accept samples

Stewart Matthew collaborates with renowned fragrance designer Christophe Laudamiel and composers Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurdsson.
Original scents and music will be performed in the dark via a customized scent organ for a world premiere unlike any other. ScentOpera’s creation is supported by Fläkt Woods, Thierry Mugler Parfums, Arup and IFF.
3 June 2009 Correction/Addendum: Avery Gilbert cites Firmenich, not IFF, as the scent sponsor; IFF as Laudimiel's former employer.

more info at Critical Dance

Merde to all! Leave the spiders to live. As a youngster, I received a Ford Foundation Scholarship from the Balanchine School of American Ballet. I spent countless hours at the Lincoln Center library in Alice Tully Hall with the Henry Moore sculpture bathing outside in  marbled waters. Past the main fountain, countless more hours scoring a seat at intermission after paying minimum price tickets for Standing Room. Though a Southern California gal now, I love the imprints of that time.