Draw me an odour is a trans-disciplinary project dedicated to developing a deeper understanding of the links between the sense of smell, colour and gesture
Developed by:
Massey University and The Institut of Chimie de Nice (ICN) (chemistry) Université Côte D’Azur, Nice
The project aims to evaluate the potential influence of an olfactory stimulation to artistic production and how these findings can then be potentially applied to creative workshops/ applications to engage fine motor skills for people with Dementia. The central question is the possibility of enhancing cognitive performance with the use of non-pharmaceutical protocol. Olfactory stimulations could be applied to promote better performance, concentration, recall, autonomy and flexibility in daily tasks.
Stage 1
Draw me an Odour has finished its first stage, having developed a digital tool that allows us to explore how cognitive tasks are influenced by odour. The first stage is titled ‘Colour me an Odour’ as it explores odour/colour association with participants being asked to identify a colour that corresponds to the odour they are smelling, while also filling in a questionnaire that explores hedonicity, familiarity, intensity, relaxing effects, the context (urban, nature, inside, outside) and memory (positive/negative recollection, past or recent).
Dr Jérémie Topin of ChEmoSim lab, Institut de Chimie de Nice and Massey University, Wellington have now finished their sample and the Pacific Community Study in Wellington is well underway. Testing of paryicipants in South Korea at DGIST (Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology) in Daegu at the laboratory of Professor Cheil Moon and at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Peru has been Covid delayed.
However , we the sample size already undertaken the results are looking promising, measuring the difference among the populations and the cultural impact. The question is to know if there exists a common invariant between different cultures.
The International Perfume Museum of Grasse, France
Exhibition for Stage 1 and Stage 2
Draw me an Odour has now been joined by The International Perfume Museum of Grasse, France. The museum is considered to be unique in the world due to its scope and diversity of its collections based on the theme of perfume. Creating prestigious exhibitions in collaboration with all major international perfume houses and European cultural institutions.
Draw me an Odour has collaborated with the museum to create a public art installation that explores the correlation between odour and colour. Shaping an environment through new olfactory molecules technology and by utilising data collected from the 100,000 + annual visitors to The International Perfume Museum.
The Draw me an Odour science and art research nexus aligns perfectly with the museum’s objectives and the exhibition has opened in May 2022.
The exhibition provides the opportunity for Draw me an Odour to collect new data for Stage 2. Utilising a large interactive digital screen in real time to assess how smell can affect the forms that people draw.
If you would like to participate, please follow the link below and Bri Simpson our research assistant will get back to you.
The ‘Draw Me An Odour’ Team
JÉRÉMIE TOPIN
I am revealing biomolecular mechanisms at spatial and temporal scales that remain difficult to observe experimentally, using numerical approaches. My research project is focused on the prediction of the odor, and/or the emotion induce by a molecule using its chemical structure as input. The long-term objective is to learn a computer how to smell.
As theoretical chemist, I am applying various methods of molecular modeling and chemoinformatic to investigate at the atomic scale the interactions between ligands and receptors. These researches are always conducted in the perspective of linking in sillico observations to in vitro or in vivo results.
As a physiologist, I am measuring human physiological variations induced by olfactory stimulations. These experiments are made to identify mood modulator.
BRI SIMPSON
Bri Simpson is our New Zealand/Aotearoa ‘Draw Me an Odour’ Research Assistant. Currently completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts (hons) at Massey University, she engages with drawing as expanded practice, researching political community engagement and visual arts pedagogy.
EMMA FEBVRE-RICHARDS
Emma Febvre-Richards: Senior lecturer, Massey University Wellington, New Zealand.
Emma Febvre-Richards is an artist, whose research sits within the expanded practice of drawing. Engaging ‘Drawing is Thinking’ to combine traditional mediums of rendering with advanced technology and other disciplines (sound and neuro-science) to explore how codes of our environment, culture and art creation inform and influence brain function, memory and experience.
She founded MeDArT in 2018 and is passionate about how art, science and technology can combine to enrich and advance dementia research.
Febvre-Richards has exhibited and published in Asia, Europe and the Pacific (EmmaFebvre-Richards.com), and is a co-founder of Drawing Open: an international research community (drawingopen.com).
CAMERON MAY
Cameron May is an artist and programmer. In his art practice, Cameron uses machines, electronics and simulations to create artworks that are indeterminate and unstable. Cameron completed his MFA at Massey University in 2018, and has exhibited across New Zealand and Australia. For the MedArt project, Cameron is applying his coding experience to create a series of unique digital drawing applications.
OMAR CASTRO
Omar Castro is a visual artist and teacher at the Faculty of Art and Design (FAD) of the PUCP (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú), in Peru. He is interested in the ways in which drawing and artistic research can engage with other fields of knowledge. His artistic practice investigates understandings, representations and relationships with notions such as territory and nature through different media.
He coordinates with a group of students and teachers from the FAD the development of the 'Draw me an odor' tests in Lima under the current circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic.