by Jon Lackman | 3 October 2007 | Theory
In the summer 2007 issue of The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Larry Shiner and Yulia Kriskovets have contributed an article “The Aesthetics of Smelly Art”:
The remarkable increase in the number of artworks that foreground scents and odors during recent years suggests the need for an assessment of the aesthetic and artistic possibilities of smell … From the ancient world into the twentieth century, majority opinion among philosophers has been that [smell, taste, and touch] are far beneath vision and hearing in dignity, intellectual power, and refinement … Although morally condemned for its sensuality by Plato and the Church Fathers and often derided in the modern period for its erotic and commercial associations, perfume is one of the oldest arts and was held in high esteem in ancient cultures, especially in Rome, where men were as likely to wear fragrances as women … although olfactory art is still in its infancy, it has already produced works of moderate complexity and expressiveness.
