Memory below the human world
research on the relationship of smell & memory:
Sulphurous smells were once considered to enter our world from another. Once having emanated from the body, it could expose and separate sinners and moral deviants among the general population. While associated with Hell, the smell was believed to omit whenever sinful acts or behaviours were committed. In ‘Technologies of the Self’ (1982) the yellow mineral is referred as the first ‘device’ to enforce societal control in medieval Europe. Mapping of natural deposits for its extraction and sensory association of decay gave sulphur its mark of the devil. Careful invocation of mental imageries that further tied the mineral to the underworld and world of abject, sulphur responded to a demand in production of certain subjectivity towards bodies and plurality of their expressions. By altering sensory notions about the world, the self and our relationship with the unfamiliar - today we sense an increased residues of an alienated subjectivity.
Sulphur-coated insect hotels, MBTI-test quotes. sulphur crystals, Arduino components, animatronic butterflies , 100 x 15 x 60 cm
Kindly supported by the Mondriaan Fonds.
research on the relationship of smell & memory:
Sulphurous smells were once considered to enter our world from another. Once having emanated from the body, it could expose and separate sinners and moral deviants among the general population. While associated with Hell, the smell was believed to omit whenever sinful acts or behaviours were committed. In ‘Technologies of the Self’ (1982) the yellow mineral is referred as the first ‘device’ to enforce societal control in medieval Europe. Mapping of natural deposits for its extraction and sensory association of decay gave sulphur its mark of the devil. Careful invocation of mental imageries that further tied the mineral to the underworld and world of abject, sulphur responded to a demand in production of certain subjectivity towards bodies and plurality of their expressions. By altering sensory notions about the world, the self and our relationship with the unfamiliar - today we sense an increased residues of an alienated subjectivity.
Sulphur-coated insect hotels, MBTI-test quotes. sulphur crystals, Arduino components, animatronic butterflies , 100 x 15 x 60 cm
Kindly supported by the Mondriaan Fonds.