This March, Labocine turns to scent. ODORAMA gathers films that explore odors, smells, and atmosphere as invisible portals—carriers of memory, chemistry, place, and emotion. How does one bring scent to the screen? From molecular traces to personal recollection, from decay to perfume, we’re seeking works that follow what lingers in the air and moves through the body.
'The Nose' is the result of a collaboration with composer Llywelyn ap Myrddin, folk singer Sam Lee and research scientist Dr Darren Logan. Produced for the Body of Songs project and supported by Wellcome Trust and Arts Council England. The aim was to create an audio-visual version of that all-consum
Breath is a film about the poetic journey of air that surrounds us and flows through us continuously. We breathe the ethereal force of life through our bodies. Every creature inspire and transform the air and add some of their own entity in the mixture before it is passed on. We all share each other
An experimental film to explore behaviors of an artificial system reaching the point of saturation. Central to the work is the aesthetic combination of geometry and life, expressed by collinear structure and living ants. The sugar water falls from the sky, artificially creating an ecosystem for ants
Chemical and cognitive dissonance. A love story between oxygen and nitrogen.
This film experiment begins its life-cycle with the production and collection of edible North American forest and field dwelling mushrooms. Bellas (Agaricus bisporus); chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius); shaggy manes (Coprinus comatus); lions manes (Hericium erinaceus); and oyster spores (Pleurotu
The piece frames scent as a bridge between past and present. While photographs freeze a single moment, smell refuses to stay fixed; it lingers, heightening and reanimating memory. I filmed this short in a single day, using myself and my two cats as subjects interacting with scent and the memories it
Small pieces of information can be stored separately within a shared container. The most efficient containers can house multiple pieces of information in the same location, intersecting from different angles.
A visual and lyrical portrait about people with the rare condition that renders them unable to smell.
Teresa works on a farm in the heart of the Catalan mountains, an environment threatened by the intensive exploitation of resources. The departure of her dog underscores the gradual disappearance of the links that the inhabitants maintain with this peaceful territory. Adrià Expòsit Goy
An experimental direct animation film tracing the labyrinthine emotions of a bittersweet first love. Shot on Bolex 16mm film.
The video focuses on the creation of the experimental and creative perfumery studio, structured in two parts: Make Your Perfume as a Tool of Art , designed to introduce artistic perfume with an artisanal denomination, highlighting its most unknown (and at the same time most fascinating) dimension: a
Olfactory is a dramatic sci-fi short film about memories and how they never leave us. In the film, "Olfactory" is a system that allows users to re-experience memories. Brian, an app programmer, hacks the system so he can alter his memories, but in doing so, he loses his grip on his current reality.
Raised by her protective mother by the Black Sea, the outbreak of war has forced 12-year-old Vlada to leave home and move in with a mysterious family friend in a peripheral city in Europe. Typically, her lifeworld, immersed in the metaverse as an upcoming XR talent, and that of her caregiver 'A' rar
A quarantine meditation on the scent of exile, told through the stories of family roots in Los Angeles and living in the shadow of the US/Mexico Border. This film was made for the indigenous who are treated as migrants in their own land. In their generosity, friendship, and hard work, they are the b
Beneath our feet lies a mystery. A complex underground network of fungi keeps our ecosystem alive by exchanging nutrients and carbon with plants and trees. Remarkably, no one quite knows how these advanced and age-old systems operate, and how they are affected by climate change. The Underground Astr
When a person dies alone, they may not be discovered immediately. Dirt and odours seep into the apartment, which a death cleaner is called to remove. But where does the spirit of the deceased go? This question is explored in the experimental film Scent of an Ancestral Dream , a glimpse into the life
Unorthodox, volatile, aromatic materials are a staple of artist Anicka Yi's practice, using living matter like bacteria or worms, medical tools like ultrasound gel, and everyday substances like glycerin soap. The film documents how Yi runs her studio like a laboratory, developing hypotheses, testing
The descriptive language of celebrity perfumes serves as inspiration and source material. Give us your songs, your smells and we will give you everything. The rich get richer, everyone smells poorer.
The breath is a constant reminder of our physicality and an anchor to our embodied experience. In these video portraits performers exhale slowly against an unseen piece of glass, fogging and obscuring their faces in fleeting moments between breaths. When shown, it creates the illusion that the perfo
For the first time in a documentary feature, the prestigious House of Dior opened its doors to show the wonders of perfume creation. Travelers at heart, Arthur de Kersauson and Clément Beauvais followed François Demachy for two years and over 14 countries, from Grasse to the other side
Commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation, Dream Soup is a short video on the perfume industry in the UAE. Al Qasimi documents various perfume retailers and the different stages of perfume manufacturing. Throughout the film, many of the labels' names that appear often to gendered aspirations like '
Pinocchio felt a longing deep within him. Someday, he would become a real girl and live a life beyond the confines of make-believe.
Limbic is an experimental short film that examines the quantum physics phenomena of quantum entanglement. Quantum entanglement occurs when particles become linked together in such a way so that a change in the physical state of one particle will be felt in another…regardless of the space betw
'The Sweet Stench of Sulfur' blends documentary, historical, and fictional elements by merging mythical and apocalyptic components into what seems like fragments of a dream. It examines human interaction with nature and how nature reclaims itself through natural disasters. The film was shot at the D
A young man from Malabar walks along the Portuguese coast, contemplating the imminent loss of his ancestral garden. While his mother catalogs the plants in their garden, two Portuguese spirits roam the tropical night in search of black pepper, misled by the herbalist Garcia de Orta. / (work-in-progr
This film explores an entomologist's research into the relationships between the genes, receptors, pheromones, behaviors, evolution, and ecology of moths and other insects.
"Stink!" opens with a foul smell and a pair of kids pajamas. And a single father trying to find out what that smell could possibly be. But instead of getting a straight answer, director Jon Whelan stumbles on an even bigger issue in America, which is that some products on our store shelves are not s
Jennifer West Odor Film 2 16mm film negative soaked in horsemanure, ink, patchouli incense, cumin - based on CDG Odeur 2 notes) 2006, 1 minute, 10 seconds 16mm film transferred to digital video
In the quiet hum of New Zealand's beehives, a silent threat is spreading. This documentary follows Dunedin-based dog trainer Rene Gloor as he takes on an unlikely mission: training an American Staffordshire terrier named Georgie to detect American foulbrood — a highly destructive bacterium tha
Jennifer West Odor Film 53 16mm film negative dripped with nailpolish, burnt rubber, xerox light, skim boarded over - based on notes from CdG Odeur 53 2006, 2 minutes, 15 seconds 16mm film transferred to digital video
'Herbarium' is a cinematographic observation based on the changes in the classification of plants. Going from classical taxonomy to genetic data-storage, Visser wonders what is left when the plant its separated from its physical features. What is a plant to us, without the sensation of smell, textur
Witness an alchemist's spell: the transmutation of light into substance. A glimpse of gold.
On a remote coast of the Russian Arctic in a wind-battered hut, a lonely man waits to witness an ancient gathering. But warming seas and rising temperatures bring an unexpected change, and he soon finds himself overwhelmed.
Sensing the Superject is an in-development animated short that follows one moment of consciousness as it begins, transforms, and becomes memory. The story unfolds through shifting wavelengths of color based on models of neural oscillation. Gold, blue, violet, and magenta colors shift with her moveme
the air we breathe is an expanded, experimental documentary that thinks through the complexities of air pollution by weaving together themes of environmental catastrophe, environmental racism, cultural and political shifts, and conspiracy. Combining research into air pollution along with personal st
A sensory journey through time, Parfums is a quest to better understand Italian Baroque music through the commercial roads of incents and spices, travelling from the middle east to Europe in the 17th century. Passionate baroque musician François Cardey traveled to Oman, the cradle of the rose
While playing a game with his friends, 10-year-old Nate starts to wonder if something is seriously wrong with his sense of smell. After a visit to a doctor, Nate learns that he has the rare condition Anosmia and that he will never be able to smell. Nate begins to lose all hope, but then an unlikely
A film commissioned by Harvard. Part four of an eight-part series on representations of perception and sensation. (https://vimeo.com/channels/972301) "A nose that can see is worth two that sniff." Eugène Ionesco Authentic sound recording of William Carlos Williams provided by the Estate of Wi
How do we breathe? How do we smell? Using supercomputer simulations, scientists can recreate a rapid and short inhalation, a 'sniff'. Using pure data visualizations, this short documentary allows us to see the stunning beauty of this process. Credits: Directors: Guillermo Marin & Fernando Cucchietti
In Glorious Smell-O-Vision! The True Story of the Godfather of Scented Cinema is a scented documentary about flamboyant Swiss scientist Hans Laube, and Scent of Mystery (1960), a star studded Hollywood whodunit which debuted the ill-fated "Smell-O-Vision" process - later dubbed one of Time's "100 Wo
Smell of Sound is an animated film combining sounds, smells and moving images. Abstract forms produced in computer-generated images come to life in an intimate sound space to create a correspondence to a mental representation of the smell. This film was produced with the support of the Avatar and DA
Impressions of Vienna: a young man with blond hair and painted fingernails that stroke plants. A cinematic portrait that is also a little big-city symphony, about how the view through the camera changes the world: gently, not brutally. A film about cinema. Because photochemistry does something to th
A study of ants and the inner life of one who studies them. Recommended Read: Taylor Hart's article " World's first transgenic ants reveal how colonies respond to an alarm" This film was made as part of the Imagine Science Symbiosis competition
Contact info@instrumentinventors.org to order. Instructions can be found HERE Lauren Jetty | Experimental Perfume 'ArtScience Body' is a perfume that bends notions of what is considered to be 'perfume' by fusing it with what people often attribute to DIY electronic music and media art: burnt electro
Forager Pascal Baudar transforms California's wild landscape into an edible feast, revealing how forgotten flavors can reconnect us to our deepest relationship with nature.
What happens when you smell something? This whimsical look at olfaction follows the journey of a smell through the nose. A film by Anna Lindemann and Albana Kodra as part of the Imagine Science Symbiosis Competition Animation by Anna Lindemann. Illustration by Ziael Ponte. Microscopy by Albana Kodra
Are we our diseases? Is the world a petri dish incubating the source of its ultimate destruction? Screened For is an algorithm-based video that displays fear of the viral, of the microbial and of impending pandemics in a new light. The artist is depicted wearing protective mouth and nose masks paint
A researcher discovers the key to immortality: beet! Those who surround themselves with its scent will live forever. An impenetrable magenta atmosphere envelops the planet. Immortality spreads like a virus, death is impossible.
In the municipality of Villa Guerrero, State of Mexico, flower growers and their families live with the hope of better times; in the meantime, they live every day in a field that no longer smells of flowers...
The film is set inside an aromatic therapy centre in a village in Kashmir where fragrance of flower petals is used to heal war victims. There, a conversation ensues between a senile ex-militant and a woman, who is the healer. The film explores the violence in present day Kashmir, a land ravaged by p
In the heart of Brittany, Jean embarks on a crazy soliloquy on the trail of the asphodels. Walking the entire path with him, the camera meets the inhabitants and the memories that populate these places, in documentary scenes from the past as well as the present. A journey through space and time, The
This short film follows Norwegian artist and musician Simon Daniel Tegnander Wenzel as he explores scent as an artistic medium. Working with olfaction, Simon creates scent-based compositions that connect memory, place and personal experience. From childhood associations triggered by everyday smells,
Gabriela has lost her dog Porro and is looking for him, helped by a childhood friend. The plot is as simple as pie, a beautiful pretext for setting off to meet a working-class neighborhood in Chile, of which Beatriz Arias paints a vivid portrait in colors, in a few sensitive, lively and precise stro
A short video influenced by the contemporary state of rose cultivation that combines research on horticultural mutations, beauty as economic capital, and the universal erotic and spiritual symbolism of the rose. This project was deeply informed by my day job as a florist. The work takes a sensorial
In the space of a moment, inside a cabinet, perception embarks on an epic journey through the terrain of memories that form the identity of an American born Asian.
Jennifer West Odor Film 71 16mm film negative soaked in lettuce juice, submerged in LA river, static electricity, dust on a hot lightbulb - based on notes from CdG Odeur 71 2006, 2 minutes, 41 seconds 16mm film transferred to digital video
Odor attraction (left, odor-only assay) and light avoidance (right, light-only) behavior of Drosophila larvae. 15 larvae per plate are filmed (1 frame/second) using infra-red illumination for 5min. The larvae on the left are attracted to a point source of isoamyl acetate located on the upper part of
My tic—constant sniffing—appears in almost every video and audio recording I've ever made. As a filmmaker, I used to cut these sounds out, striving for clean recordings. But what if they're the most important part of my media archive? [sniff] is an exploration of self-acceptance, persona
Filmmaker José Cardoso's deeply personal Flowers is an exercise in sense-making, led by both his conscious and unconscious mind. Navigating the barrage of online news images produced each day, he transforms these into an unexpected web of connections that link an Amazonian community threatene
Scentsory Design® is a film that explores the fusion of "Emotional Fashion" with health and olfaction science, to create a new concept in perfumery. It is a multi-sensory journey describing the future of fashion and fragrance that goes beyond current microencapsulated techniques, through the inc
Kate Prigge of the Monell Chemical Senses Center studies what things smell like—to us, to canines, and to machines. By using many different sensing technologies, from mass spectrometers to working dogs, she is honing in on the smells that signal health and disease. In her latest work, Prigge i
As Zendy prepares for the day's sale, she shares her deepest dreams and desires, wrapped in the aroma of seasonal sweets. An honest portrait of how tenderness transforms the everyday, creating a loving atmosphere in the life of a family in Sudzal, a small Mayan community in central Yucatán.
The film is an adaptation of the poem "There will come soft rains" by Sarah Teasdale. It depicts the end of the Anthropocene epoch and the beginning of a new one.
Notes of dark green leaves, herbal and aromatic notes, spicy modifiers, floral transparent freshness. These are not field notes from a botanist's journal–they are scent recipes, reconstructed molecule by molecule in a laboratory. Olfactory Forest documents designer and artist Omer Polak's atte
Spring equinox 2024: 20 March at three hours, six minutes, twenty-one seconds (GMT). Vattetot-sur-mer, in the Pays-de-Caux region of Normandy, Gaza is being bombed.
A series of old photographs awakens memories of childhood in post-war Spain, where a daughter and mother are struggling to find their place between grief and prejudice. Smells ambitiously attempts to stimulate our senses to help understand the protagonists' lives. With very few elements, the film su
'The wind carried you to me' is a poetic short film about reminiscing on the past, and how a scent appearing, of someone you used to know, can invoke old feelings, memories and longing. The written words and images together, is meant to reflect the emptiness and stillness of what no longer is, but a
Deshebrada follows Lupita, an elderly woman from a small community in Querétaro, México. With the softness of her food, she has spent her life cooking to keep her late mother's business alive. Now, Lupita and her daughter face the reality that the food stand they have worked on for dec
Over hundreds of years, humans have cultivated roses to have more desirable patterns, better scents, more saturated colors, and even a more graceful death. By asking the Juliet rose what it experiences from its revered cultural position, I seek to further understand how roses are using human desire