Perfume Lab Residencies: Eliza Douglas

On selected Sundays the Perfume Lab will be occupied by expert perfumers investigating a key part of the olfactory practice within the exhibition itself. This unique open lab experience will allow visitors to see the precision, craft and artistry that goes into fragrance creation, as well as ask questions, smell individual ingredients and get a genuine insight into the process behind perfumes.

Each resident will explore a particular theme related to their work throughout the day and will host informal drop-in talks at 12.00-12.15, 14.00-14.15 & 16.00 - 16.15.  

The lab residencies are drop-in and free with exhibition entry, capacity may be limited during busy times. Parts of the session may be interactive but these are not hands on workshops.

“We live in a visual world, and our sense of smell is often ignored. Smell is interpreted by the amygdala - one of the oldest parts of the brain, processing emotions, memory and motivation - which makes it difficult to describe a scent in words. It is also the reason scents conjure up such strong feelings and trigger distant memories.

 Scent can also surprise us by creating sensations of texture, colour, temperature, taste and weight. As a way of interpreting the literal and figurative content of visual art, scent can deepen our experience - and even more so for those who are visually impaired.

During my residency I shall be creating a fragrance to reflect the nature of a commonplace object, inspired by The Learned Society of Extra-Ordinary Objects at Somerset House 05 July – 03 Sept 2017. Visitors will have the chance to observe the composition of the fragrance, sample the different materials used and explore their facets, and discuss what the scent evokes for them. “