The Air Out There

Making sense of scents and fragrances

- Demai G. Sunio-Granali

IF YOU’VE EVER WONDERED HOW PERFUME CAPTURES THE SCENT OF DIFFERENT OBJECTS IN NATURE, JUST WATCH PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER, THE 2006 FILM BY GERMAN DIRECTOR TOM TYKWER. NEVER MIND THE BAFFLING HOMICIDAL PLOT; THE MOVIE ACTUALLY PRESENTS (IN NON-BORING FASHION) SEVERAL TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUES IN PERFUMERY THAT GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF HOW SCENTS ARE MADE.

In the film, olfactory genius Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) tries to create the perfect scent—the scent of a woman. While his tale is all but fictional, Chinese-American artist and MIT Media Lab graduate Ani Liu has somehow turned this craft into reality. In an interview with National Geographic, she relates how her idea to grow a plant that would remind her of loved ones led to a deep dive into microbiology.

The process for her Human Perfume Project involves obtaining volatile molecules derived from clothing that had been worn by the subject for a long time. She takes the “stinkiest” parts of the garment and mixes them with solvent in a glass flask— a traditional approach also known as maceration.

It’s quite weird and spooky when you think of “bottling up” a person, but Liu says it’s a way of preserving the memory of someone we love when they pass on. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille would probably approve.

GETTING INTO THE HEADSPACE