Experiences, artificial intelligence (AI), digital art, storytelling, perfumes with cauliflower and other plant products… The new olfactory territories go beyond the usual ingredients or unpublished molecules to explore the intangible, a concept closely linked to the relationship of smells with the brain, with which they communicate without intermediaries, generating immediate reactions. The language incorporates visual and immersive options and aims at reflection to define ideas and ride between the algorithm and connectivity via TikTok.
Immersive installations bring a visual and olfactory angle to art and consumption. They are a bridge to build commitment with the Z, thinking about purchasing experiences that speak their multimedia language. The latest edition of Pitti Fragranze, an international meeting point for signature perfumes in Florence, surprised with Symbiotic Experience, an interactive staging in which four digital artists and four noses – among them the maestro Alberto Morillas – combined knowledge to create a multisensory itinerary that opens new horizons for the creation and use of perfume. Perfumers were inspired by works of art created by human imagination and AI tools.
By lifting the olfactory bell of each installation, the sillage (star) of the fragrance was revealed while the video and music by composer and sound designer Alessandro Meistro was launched, using digital instruments. Welcome the era of perfume with context and multiple possibilities that are not limited to the virtual. The Prado Museum has already dared to merge sight and smell in the exhibition The essence of a painting. An olfactory exhibition, where he proposed aromas based on the work Smell, by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Rubens.
In the packaging of perfumes, some include what circumstance or moment inspired their aroma. Because now there is no aroma without a story. Examples? 19-69 is not only the year of birth of the Swede Johan Bergelin, it also gives its name to some perfumes that interpret that date through different scenarios and actions of the counterculture, with its legacy of tolerance, art and music (Nineteen-sixtynine. com)
Salvador Montesinos, at the head of Botanicae, has turned references such as the photojournalist Gerda Taro, Ébano, by Ryszard Kapuscinski, or Ithaca by Cavafis, versioned by Lluis Llach, into perfume. His proposals are accompanied by a Moleskine-type notebook to be great travel companions. Imaginary Authors, for its part, uses drama, provocation and plot twists to present itself as an open book and create an olfactory library full of good stories.
The pandemic encouraged us to light candles and the pleasure of perfuming the home has raised the bar a lot, banishing the outdated air freshener. Candles and diffusers have become exclusive design pieces signed by the best ceramic, porcelain and glass artisans. Loewe, with its candelabra-shaped candles, its ceramics and aromas as disruptive as marijuana, oregano, licorice, cucumber or tomato leaves, sneaked into many homes. Lila Franklin crystal also turns home perfumery into a decorative object that has seduced celebrities. If the salon is the new skin, let it be seen.
The role of AI in perfume is already unstoppable. Phantom, by Paco Rabanne, gave it impetus: “It is a fantastic tool because it increases the speed of innovation by amplifying our creativity,” defended Loc Dong, one of his perfumers. The phenomenon was also discussed in Pitti Fragranze without a shadow of nostalgia for times gone by. “They invite us to leave the comfort zone of certain materials and styles and to surprise more,” the speakers agreed. The machines propose a different approach to perfume, they think of new ingredients and are not afraid of them; What’s more, they nourish them with their formulas. Brave. “We use it as if it were an assistant, a starting point because it cannot say or feel if it smells good or bad,” they say. For now.
