Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

Art Scents

Perfume, Design and Olfactory Art

Bibliographic Data

ID4158560
AuthorsLarry Shiner (University of Illinois at Springfield, corresponding author)
Year2015
Pagesayv017
Publication date2015-10-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe British Journal of Aesthetics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-0904 • E-ISSN: 1468-2842
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/aesthj/ayv017
OpenAlexW2419366183
LanguageEN
Citations received3

Claims that perfumes are art have been made before, but a recent art museum exhibit of a dozen perfumes under the title 'The Art of Scent' has raised the issue with a new insistence, although with an absence of theoretical justification. Part 1 of the paper develops an aesthetic case for perfume as an art form by answering Beardsley's and Scruton's arguments against odours (and implicitly perfumes) as the basis for aesthetic objects and works of art. Part 1 concludes that perfumes can in fact manifest the required structure, temporality, symbolism and expressivity for art status. Part 2, on the other hand, develops a contextualist case against perfumes as works of fine art by analyzing a typical contemporary art practice involving a perfume and arguing that, by contrast, typical perfumery practices lack crucial elements required to make perfume an art form and that perfume should be considered one of the design arts. Part 3, instead of trying to reconcile the impasse between the conclusions of Parts 1 and 2 with a theory of the fine arts that combines aesthetic and contextual elements, instead chooses to follow Dominic Lopes' proposal that in resolving claims to art status we pursue analogies and 'paths' offered by the established individual arts. Using music as an example of a long established art form and the art quilt as an example of a recently established art, I suggest what it might take for 'art perfumes', or more accurately, 'art scents', to emerge and become justifiably included among the fine arts

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Epistemology · Fine art · Modern art · Performance art · Quilt · Temporality · The arts · Visual arts · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis · Philosophy

  • Towards a More Inclusive Museum

    Patricia Berube•2022

  • Feeling Fit for Function

    Open Access•Tom Roberts•The British Journal of Aesthetics•2022

  • Multisensory museum experience

    Open Access•Dajun Luo, Lieve Doucé et al.•Museum Management and Curatorship•2024

Unique citing works3
Citations per year0,75
Citation span2022 - 2024 (3)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 3
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae