Hasta La Ideas

The olfactory system is having a moment. Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Opera premiered its William Kentridge-designed production of Shostakovich‘s The Nose, and the Museum of Modern Art includes works related to the project in its current Kentridge exhibition. Now get a whiff of this: Parsons and MoMA have teamed up with International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), Coty, and Seed to present Headspace: A Symposium on Scent as Design, which will take place next Friday, March 26, at The New School’s Tishman Auditorium. Register here to participate in the day-long confab that will bring together leading designers (including product designer Ayse Birsel and architect Toshiko Mori), scholars, scientists, artists, and perfumers to explore a fragrant new territory for design. The event also marks the establishment of a new MFA in Transdisciplinary Design at Parsons.

“Scent is an exciting realm for design exploration at a time when technology seems to be leading us further away from direct sensory experiences,” said MoMA’s Paola Antonelli, who conceived the scentsational symposium with Jamer Hunt, chair of Urban and Transdisciplinary Design at Parsons, and Laetitia Wolff, founder of futureflair. “However, new science is exploring the ways in which scent stimulates cognition, memory, and the production of experience. This symposium will generate a dialogue on what this means for designers and architects.” Will Chandler Burr be there? You bet. The Times‘ perfume critic will be on hand to moderate individual dialogues with designers-turned-“accidental perfumers” who worked with IFF noses to design their own scents. Smells like an event not to be missed.

Previously on UnBeige: