VIOLENCE: Invisible communication
The Violence process blog has been updated with an email from Sissel. You can read the articles she mentions here and here.
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>Project Blog
VIOLENCE: Process blog updated
Dear Sissel,
The Violence 2 is a lot more interesting than the first prototype.
My first impression was that there was something more animal about it. It smelt more menacing/ dangerous and I wondered if it was my desire to feel this or wether there was the beginning of a instinctive reaction to the smell.
Our theory is that when men (or indeed women,but that is part two of this project) fight they release pheromones that are only released when the "fight or flight"response is activated. Furthermore the pheromones we are trying to isolate are the one that would be released if the individual opts for the "fight" option rather than the "flight" option.
Now, are we supposing that these pheromones will have a smell and it is that that our scent would predominantly smell of? Or are they an ingredient within the overall scent and that we create a "pleasing" scent that may smell mainly of pleasing but appropriate smells, such as leather or brick dust for example and that the pheromones that we isolate are undetectable and are there to trigger a behavioral response in the wearer or the people that the wearer comes into contact with?
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VIOLENCE: Oh, the smell of it!
Perfume is often presented as "pure profit" for fashion houses, attaching the talisman of a designer name to a product purporting to bear said designer's olfactory stamp, cleverly marketing the results and reaping the rewards. A pinch of cynicism perhaps too much, as the the above spread - appropriately enough, from the Independent on Sunday - highlights the opposite: independent names crafting to create fragrances that are as much blood sweat and tears as base notes and and essence absolue. Showcasing those new scents lead by concept rather than commerce, our own Violence features heavily, alongside Boudicca's Wode (hovering like a mushroom cloud above my head for many a month now) and the recently-launched Six Scents project curated by Joseph Quartana of Seven New York that gives relatively small labels such as Gareth Pugh, Bernhard Willhelm and Preen the opportunity to express themselves in scent. What is this all indicative of? Maybe a willingness for smaller brands and independent practitioners to capitalise on the new power of their niche names? Perhaps more interestingly - and certainly more optimistically - it seems to be a move away from saturated big-budget mass-appeal scent launches, and towards a more intense, unusual and individual experience of scent. Witness the popularity of bespoke fragrances courtesy of Le Labo and Serge Lutens' Palais Royal fragrance salon (offering a personal engraving service for their luxurious wares), mimicking fashion's shift towards the value of subtle but precious handicraft rather than crass bling and a continuing search for a modern luxury that is rather more personal.
The full text of this article can be found in our Violence Process Blog and online at the Independent's website.
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VIOLENCE: Sample Collection Begins
Nick Knight has just posted the first Violence film to the Violence process section. Click here to see the project's first fiery foray into sample collection.
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VIOLENCE: uniform
If you head on over to the process blog in violence then you'll see it has been updated with more details on how Nick is going about creating his groundbreaking scent. Zimmerli have supplied the t-shirts which, after being worn in a fight by an unnamed combatant, will be used to "extract the chemicals from his sweat to create the basis for a perfume"
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VIOLENCE: Scent Concept Revealed!
When we launched our project last year to create an Internet fragrance, our initial focus was on the ground-breaking aspect of creating, marketing and selling a perfume wholly online, keeping the concept of the scent itself strictly under wraps. Now, we are able to bring more details of not only the creation of the essence absolue, but the inspiration behind the fragrance itself. Our new Concept section to the project reveals Nick Knight's provocative ideas behind both the smell and the sell, premiering the influences behind the scent, its target consumer and the innovative manner in which the perfume is intended to function when worn.To continue tracking the development of the scent before its 2009 launch, our new Process Blog will reveal the ins and outs of the developmental process, updated with text, images and email correspondence as and when they happen.
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VIOLENCE: What Damian's Story Tastes Like
As if our 'smell for the Internet' VIOLENCE project weren't abstruse enough, a viewer challenged me to meet him whilst in Singapore to discuss opening this concept up into taste for the Internet. Damian Sim describes himself as a 'flavour impressionist', which extends to meticulously researching the profiles of individuals and brands and then creating custom-made cocktails for people, city locations and corporate clients such as AMEX: his 'Provocachic' company's strap-line is 'What Would Your Story Taste Like?'. If I were to be glib, he's a kind of Heston Blumenthal-meets-Sissel Tolaas -in-a-glass.
He brought along the component parts of a special creation that interprets the many strands that make up Singapore's unique and surprising culture. And what did it taste like? Well, unique and surprising, of course.
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VIOLENCE: Project Launch
In partnership with the scent artist Sissel Tolaas, SHOWstudio is launching a groundbreaking initiative to create a fragrance on the Internet. Based on a provocative concept yet to be announced and currently in the process of copyrighting, the scent will be created over the coming months, taking its inspiration from the theme and activities of a controversial subculture and using Tolaas’ amazing ‘headspace’ technology.
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