Artistic perfumery has essentially been about the juice from its very beginning in the late 1970s: Jean Laporte started L’Artisan Parfumeur and focused on the juice as well as its creator.
Later on, corporate players became interested in this vibrant segment and launched their own niche lines. More recently, the Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO) was created, signaling a comprehensive “new approach to the olfactory arts“ (Saskia Wilson-Brown, IAO founder’s statement, 2012). Consequently, the IAO’s prominent Art & Olfaction Awards highlight the artistry in perfumery. In fact, the awards propose to celebrate the value of the juice, and the juice alone.
This talk will draw attention to forms of judging and criticism in artistic perfumery: What is the relevance of judging scent? What do bloggers, experts and consumers contribute? In particular, the talk invites a discussion on awards, blogs and other forms of judging and criticism in positioning the…
View original post 38 more words
Memory Of Scent 
I’ll be going to this event, Christos. I wish you and some of the other perfume writers pushing the form could be there. The state of perfume writing is changing faster than the state of perfume and it would be fascinating to have a few key writers together.
I can’t tell you how much I would have loved to be there
“Barrett’s Principles of Interpretation
1. Artworks have “aboutness” and demand interpretation.
2. Interpretations are persuasive arguments.
3. Some interpretations are better than others.
4. Good interpretations of art tell more about the artwork than they tell about the critic.
5. Feelings are guides to interpretations.
6. There can be different, competing, and contradictory interpretations of the same artwork.
7. Interpretations are often based on a worldview.
8. Interpretations are not so much absolutely right, but more or less reasonable, convincing, enlightening, and informative.
9. Interpretations can be judged by coherence, correspondence, and inclusiveness.
10. An artwork is not necessarily about what the artist wanted it to be about.
11. A critic ought not to be the spokesperson for the artist.
12. Interpretations ought to present the work in its best rather than its weakest light.
13. The objects of interpretation are artworks, not artists.
14. All art is in part about the world in which it emerged.
15. All art is in part about other art.
16. No single interpretation is exhaustive of the meaning of an artwork.
17. The meanings of an artwork may be different from its significance to the viewer. Interpretation is ultimately a communal endeavor, and the community is ultimately self- corrective.
18. Good interpretations invite us to see for ourselves and to continue on our own.
Barrett, Terry. (1994) Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary. Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company.”
I would be more interested to see how all this relates to perfume criticism and perfume bloggers