Cross- modal Installation / Performance

By Sebastián Tedesco and Bruno Mesz

Research Students:

Leonardo Potenza

Camilo Alvarez

Scents: IFF (International Flavors & Fragrances)

Emotions evoked by tactile stimuli in conjunction with smell are a large unexplored and undocumented territory.

The work has, as its main objective, a claim of senses traditionally considered as secondary (touch and aroma) over the hierarchical domination of the primary senses (vision and hearing) in the arts.

The installation consists of the recreation of a laboratory environment in which the public can experience a series of abstract vibe-touch-aromatic compositions sitting on a chaise-longue equipped with vibe-touch-aromatic devices that, through skin, transmit tactile sensations in the body accompanied by aromas that are facilitated by an operator.

After testing the compositions, the viewer becomes the subject of a real scientific experiment on correspondences between touch and aroma for which he is exposed to a series of pairs of touch-aroma correspondences of which he has to evaluate in the form of a series of combination characteristics.

The work emerges as a follow-up of laboratory work on correspondences between the senses and sociological studies on current phenomena of mixtures between “major” and “minor” arts, between main (vision and hearing) and secondary (touch, smell, taste).

We propose to make a point about the expressive power of works destined for the senses traditionally considered as secondary and for which there are hardly any space and temporal arts, although their receptive capacity is of exquisite diversity.

EXHIBITIONS

Participation in “In Kepler’s Garden – The Garden of Curiosity”. ARS ELECTRONICA Festival, Art, Science and Technology. Linz, Austria, 2020. Access the virtual exhibition HERE.

LAR DOCE LAR. BienalSur 2019. Embassy of Brazil, Buenos Aires, July 2019. Curators: Florencia Batitti, Fernando Farina.