![]() Such associations can be powerful enough to make odours that would generally be labelled unpleasant agreeable, and those that would generally be considered fragrant disagreeable for particular individual (Classen et al,1995, p. Respondents (to a survey) noted that many of their likes and dislikes were based on emotional associations. A foul odour or one associated with a bad memory may make us grimace with disgust. A scent associated with a good experience can bring a rush of joy. Smells can evoke strong emotional responses. In Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell, Classen et al argue that: ![]() Smells can be highly evocative, conjuring up the vivid memory of associated events and places, even from remote childhood. 'The perception of smell, thus consists not only of the sensation of the odours themselves, but of the experiences and emotions associated with them'' (Classen et al, 1995, p. It is the emotive impact of smell that I am most interested in exploring particularly with respect to its impact when used in live performance. Technology has not found a meaningful way to (re)create smell. In terms of the technology/performance relationship, smell is as yet unique to the live presence/performance /audience dynamic. In Smell: the Secret Seducer, Peit Vroon writes that there are reasons to assume that a child's first sensation is in the sphere of smell, 'We begin our life, as it were, not by seeing the light of day, but by smelling a kind of 'Life smell' diffused in the fluid of the womb' (1997, p. The human sense of smell, linked to the cognitive centers in the brain, is a powerful evocation of memory, 'Smell may be to emotion what sight or hearing is to cognition' (Engen,1991, p. Whilst I am not interested in prioritising live over mediated - indeed I am drawn to find a more reciprocal, even symbiotic relationship between the two - I am interested, as an artist who works within both live and mediated formats - to explore the visceral in the age of the virtual. This article examines the unique aspects of live performance, with which technology can not (yet) compete and posits an 'ontology of the olfactory' - citing the sense of smell is an emotive and powerful sense for both performer and audience within a live context. Contemporary digital and screen arts have engendered a new body of discourse around increasingly mediatised - and increasingly reproducible - performances enabled by new technologies. Live performance engages the spectator in a same-time same-space reality with performer and performance a phenomenon referred to by Walter Benjamin as a 'cult' event, ephemeral in nature.
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