Further to our Crossing Wires installation/lab, we're hosting a discussion on Multisensory Perception - on YASMIN Arts Science Mediterranean International Network in March 2010.

We are perceiving the world with all our senses; In visual media we've become mesmerised by the vibrancy of saturated coloured light, it reminds us of the colours of the hypnagogic fireworks in our minds. Ipods and MP3 players allow singular insular worlds of sound, which have become a personal soundtrack to real life instead of its own sound.  Our sense of smell is informed by a synthetic overlay of fragrance in our personal space, the larger environment is re-perfumed with substitutes for the smells of nature and we make new associations with smells never before encountered.

How do these combined nuances of mediated sensing feel under our skins? What would a synthetic smell receptor be able to sense in 2020?  And what are the consequences of being able to smell more-are we numbed to most of the fragrance of our time? Although we seem to be 'anosmic?'?.. (the term for a lack of sense of smell) to most of the fragrance of our time, odour signals are being transmitted, received, translated and associated by all living beings in nature. Could we grow an awareness of the full cross-sensory fragrance of life? 

These are some of the questions we would like to discuss in the coming weeks.

Our first venue for discussing these issues was through a public theatre/laboratory we constructed called 'Crossing Wires' which ran over three weeks during November 2009 in a downtown storefront in Auckland, New Zealand. The installation was  both a working laboratory and  a performative spacewhich provided us with an alternative venue to develop our dialogue on cultural, social and temporal constructions of olfactory sensing, building a relationship between the languages of science and art. Human smells were collected and processed, and passers-by were  invited to experience, the smells and engage in dialogue. The lab was the 1st step towards collecting, categorising and coding of the human plume. For more detail see our blogsite for the installation (www.crossingwireslab.tumblr.com) Our respondents: Jenny Marketou, Hilda Kozari, Sergio Basbaum and Ian Ferguson will join this discussion.

Announcing March 2010 YASMIN discussion: Multisensory Perception

Introduction by Raewyn Turner and Richard Newcomb

Invited Respondents: Jenny Marketou, Hilda Kozari, Sergio Basbaum and Ian Ferguson

Richard Newcomb is a molecular biologist interested in the mechanism and evolution of odour sensing in animals.  Current projects include the development of an olfactory biosensor using insect odorant receptors and understanding the genetic bases of odour sensory acuity and food preference in humans.  Richard conducted his PhD in Canberra.  In 1996 he returned to New Zealand and has been based at The Mt Albert Research Centre where he is Science Team Leader, Molecular Sensing, Plant & Food Research, and Associate Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at the University of Auckland.  Richard is an author on over 50 publications and is an inventor on five patents.

He is an investigator at two of New Zealand's Centres for Research Excellence: a Principle Investigator at the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Evolution and Ecology and an Associate Investigator at the Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery.

Raewyn Turner is an interdisciplinary artist investigating cross-sensory perception and the uncharted territories of the senses.  Her  multi-sensory, mixed media works have been shown in numerous national and international exhibitions and performances, including Museum of Contemporary Art, LA, Parque de las Ciencias, Granada, Spain, 11th Prague Quadrennial of Scenography and Theatre Architecture 2007,Prumyslovy Palace, Prague, Argentina, Georges Pompidou Center, and Te Papa Museum of New Zealand.

Her work includes video, smell, coloured light, artefacts, and live performance with orchestras, jazz and contemporary music and dance; and has been published in 'Art of the Biotech Era', International Congress Synaesthesia, Art and Science 2009, 2007,  Generative Art 2006, 2004, and Performance Research 2003 'On Smell'.

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