wearable device flagellum: smell the sound

wearable accessory for the nose for olfactory stimulation was demonstrated on the maker fair atlanta, october 2017. this is flagellum, osmo stimulant which works in tandem with an ambient soundscape from artist eddie farr. eddie also helped to 3d print a connector and a "petal", for this very first prototype.

we made a scent composition based on raw seawater and seaweed (fucus vesiculosus), notes of musk and amber, and cold green notes. the duration of the session was 2.5 minutes, headphones were used with sound isolation from sounds from the environment. it is challenging to write such a short sound piece that attempts to capture such a complex experience as smell. this piece uses space and water as the main theme, a reoccurring idea in most of an artist eddie farr's work. the low hum is the continued presence of the smell while the melody represents your perception of the smell changing over time. while all of this happens quickly in reality, the music attempts to slow these sensations down to give you time to think and process the experience. 

the script of musical immersion stopped the moment in a literal sense. when we were discussing a sketch for music and smell, we imagined how we look at the blue planet through the spacecraft's porthole. this scent should capture the smell of the spaceship in a vacuum and weightlessness, of technical materials and resemble the smell of the ocean and green islands as if we could no longer visit the planet.

as eddie told about his smell experience, it is often a very short experience, constantly changing, which is difficult to stop and focus on it for more deep exploration. and with the help of music, he tried to slow down and stretch the experience of perception; the melody is consistently changing; but at the same time remains the same as in the case of smells, the molecules of which we perceive all at the same moment and yet they change overtime again. 
our demo continued within the framework of the maker faire atlanta for 8 hours. all this time we had visitors non-stop and heard from each of their impressions, emotions from personal experience, and memories. we received a tremendous response from a wide range of audiences. and unexpectedly for ourselves, we organized a meditative healing station, which makes people much calmer, based on the user’s feedback.