Mapping the Horizon

Every human culture has had a concurrent smellscape. For as long as humans have lived in society (possibly even before), they have intentionally incorporated natural elements from their landscapes into daily routines such as cleaning, beauty, and cooking. These homely smells made up the olfactory everyday, but scent has also had a simultaneous history of rarification, luxury, consumption, and exclusion. While most people had to use what was available nearby, more powerful people could afford rarer imported aromatics. Everyday aromas were commonplace and easy to access, and so were of less value. Scent implied class.

For our speculative scent future, I imagine a perfume that reflects the olfactory conclusion of the Anthropocene. When natural resources are scarce, all traditional natural aromatic resources could be considered a luxury. Paradoxically, all these traditional natural aromas will be readily available in another form, having been synthesized or recreated in chemistry and biology labs. Aromatic class structures will become a thing of the past. 

The following scent is an imaginary smell created for a future consumer living in a human habitat that is exclusively urban, where historic natural perfume materials have been completely replaced by affordable synthetics or by new aromatics from the evolving natural world. Far from being created by a Master Perfumer, this perfume is the result of a sophisticated AI algorithm that responds to a user’s personality profile and desires. The user, here, wanted a perfume to be worn at the office that was reflective of the urban environment where they lived, while using nature-replicating aromatic materials that could be considered a little old fashioned. The perfume is produced by a vending machine, and delivered in a small recycled plastic bottle containing 10 grams of perfume. This quantity will allow the user enough perfume for the week, at which point they are expected to purchase another blend. 

When composing a perfume for the skin, it is often advised to select materials that fit into a pyramid structure: the top notes are what people perceive first but they are also the most ephemeral. These are followed by middle notes, and—later—the base notes. The way the perfume unfolds over time creates an aromatic story, with a three-part structure. Modern perfumes, however, are often more linear, with a composition that aims to remain unchanged over time. This is increasingly possible with synthetic materials, as their performance is often more predictable. The scent imagined here is built on an old-fashioned structure of top, middle,  and base notes that has as its goal to enliven and observe the world for which it was created.