I
MET PROFESSOR KJELL DØVING ...
at the University of Oslo
09 March 2005
I met Kjell at his office in the Biology Department at the University
of Oslo where I described my intentions and posed the following questions:
1. Do humans really identify 7 primary odors as I have read on the
net:
Camphoric Mothballs
Musky Perfume/Aftershave
Roses Floral
Pepperminty Mint Gum
Etheral Dry Cleaning Fluid
Pungent Vinegar
Putrid Rotten Eggs
to help them determine objects?
The answer, no! Humans have at least 350 receptors to recognise smells.
2. Are smells, in physical terms, light and heavy? For instance, is it relevant
to place heavy smells (in spatial terms) under light smells so they don't
get muddled up when emitted?
No! Smells are only described as light and heavy in metaphorical terms.
That is, musk can be considered to be a heavy, dense fragrance, and citrous
smells as light.
3. In humans, has vision and hearing taken over from the sense of smell from
an evolutional point of view?
Rats are dependent on their sense of smell for survival, humans are not.
Today losing the sense of smell does not impair a human's chance of survival
to any great extent (we can still cook even if our sense of smell is impaired),
but does reduce their quality of life.
(Smell blindness is called anosmia. It can be a total smell blindness, or
specific - an insensitivity to the odor of a chemical or group of chemicals
in people with otherwise normal olfactory sensitivity.
In terms of my research of syneasthesia it is interesting that anosmia is
described through the metaphor of the sense of sight. These cross sensory
metaphors crop up all the time.)
4. Considering that humans often wash off human smells and replace them with
animal smells such as musk, deer and cat, do humans respond to animal pheremones
in attracting a partner?
No! Pheremones play no role in human behavior.
5. Do the chemical properties of smells directly trigger emotional responses?
No! Any emotional response to smells is due to association only. One should
be able to sniff neutrally.
6. I am interested in the smell of human sweat. Can I order a sweat smell
from a smell factory?
(Kjell gets out a large smell catalogue and looks up human sweat. He can't
find it).
Well, if you want foot odor you can try isobutyric acid, the smell of
dirty goats!
7. To what extent is the sense of smell connected to the sense of taste?
Certainly some smells stimulate the sense of taste. Flavours are often
identified by the sense of smell through experience.
8. Are there any smell factories in Norway where I can order custom made smells
for my project?
No. There are no factories in Norway. Norway should never have split form
Sweden.
9. If I ordered an onion smell from a factory or a distributor, would it make
me cry when I sniffed it?
You can try making your own onion solutions by crushing onions and extracting
the liquid produced. Home - made solutions will probably provide you with
answers to many your questions.
Kjell brought out a box containing a number of bottles of various aromas.
We sniffed both pleasant and unpleasant substances. While I could identify
some - citrus, floral, coconut - I could not identify others apart from saying
whether I found them pleasant or unpleasant. I found these the most interesting.
I put forward my proposal for emitting smells in relation to the Emotion Organ
and asked Kjell if he thought it was a good solution. He said yes. He asked
me about the proximity of the smells to the people who should experience them,
whether it was the Organ Player alone, or an audience who were situated further
away from the source of the smell. I replied both. He then said something
quite poignant, but extremely obvious. You only smell when you breathe in.
Therefore I should experiment with exactly how long the smells should be emitted
in comparison with what distance the smells have to travel. So the space/time
equation becomes important when dealing with this aspect of my project. It
brings an aspect of anachronism into the picture. Is it a significant factor?
I can't say at this point in time.
Kjell also pointed out that I will have to address the issue of whether I
wish to eliminate smells form the space after they have been released. Basically,
I'm not sure until I have done some experimenting.
Finally Kjell said that he would assist me in acquiring the smell solutions
I will eventually use in my project. He advised me to use the net as a source
of information, and should search for smell "descriptors" which
will give me an idea of what various chemical compounds smell like.
Thank you Kjell!