Abstract | In this practice-based Ph. D. thesis, a new theoretical framework for examining the olfactory social sculpture World Sensorium (Nalls 1999/2000) is applied which establishes the fields of Olfactory Art, Olfactory Aesthetics, and Olfactory Art Informatics. The case study begins with an examination of historical aesthetic theory (influenced by Kant and Adomo) and a discussion of the philosophical influences of Joseph Beuys (Social Sculpture) and Marshall McLuhan (Mass Communication), and posits World Sensorium in a new contextual basis for understanding the relationship of the human brain and the environment: the meaning and impact of aesthetics, phytogenics, human memory and culture. The work draws upon artistic practice (characterised by interpretive analysis) and scientific (or positivistic) methods, in defirting the relationship between botanical scent and cultural identity. This thesis locates its main argument and evidence base in the field of art,, with four major overlapping disciplines: e. g., Olfactory Art, related to Olfactory Science (including Behavioural and Evolutionary Sciences); Neuro-aesthetics, related to Neuroscience; the Philosophy of Aesthetics; and Social Sculpture, as drawn from Art and Cultural Studies. The work of more than 35 contemporary artists who have made distinctive Olfactory Art is presented as a set of contextualising examples, within an examination of key scientific research in a broad range of sub-disciplines including psychology, neuroscience, behavioural and evolution studies, media ecology, and anthropology, as well as the new field of neuro-aesthetics. It is argued that there is a molecular relationship, of primordial origin, that birthed both the environment and the landscape architecture of the human mind-that the mind and the environment are one ecosystem. The thesis concludes by exploring the implications of the findings in relation to the future of Olfactory Informatics, and in particular, to the potential ubiquitous technological (mobile and Web-based) disbursement of synthetic scent. |
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