Psychophysics and scent. What’s that all about?

You’re reading this text, taking in visual information while simultaneously breathing in hundreds of scent molecules. How much of your attention is on those various aromatic molecules? How would you describe those scent molecules? Could those scents be considered art?

Meet NYC-based academic and gallerist Andreas Keller who lives, breathes and contemplates these olfactory-based topics on a daily basis! With PhDs in neuroscience and philosophy and specializing in olfactory perception and psychophysics, Andreas revels in the messiness of scent so much that he opened one of the only Olfactory Art galleries in the world: Olfactory Art Keller.

A vanguard of the olfactory art movement, Andreas explores “the scent problem”—how smell is not an analytical sense like the visual one, and how paradigms of perceiving, talking about and analyzing scent and olfaction are lacking in our culture. If scent perception isn’t analytical, what is it? Settle into the episode with some of your favorite (or least favorite!) aromas to find out!

Be sure to say hello to ⁠Andreas at his gallery⁠ when you’re in lower Manhattan and give Amy a buzz to say hello and ⁠book a one-on-one aromatherapy experience⁠! Visit my Instagram post to see the artworks mentioned in the episode.

Learn more about Andreas and Olfactory Art Keller at the ⁠gallery website⁠ and ⁠Instagram⁠.

Episode highlights:

• Re-learning from children on staying curious with scent rather than judgmental and "right."
• Understanding the “task” nature of smell, its evolutionary roots and why it is often hard to go deeper into scent as information.
• Exploring our psychophysical, multivalent relationship with scent: memory formation & retrieval, chemo-neuroendocrine impact, mind-body-spirit connection.
• Appreciating the ephemerally degradable qualities of scent molecules.
• Creating a scent perception paradigm: talking about, describing and analyzing scent in new ways outside of the default visual paradigm.
• Embracing the nature of scent and its perception as a lived, messy, evanescent experience that is intertwined with the malleability of memory.
• Opening up to Olfactory Art: why scent-based art doesn’t “belong” in traditional galleries and museums—yet.

Ciao for now!