Smell and the subconsciuosness in installation art

Olfactory Movie In the early 1900s, the use of scent in conjunction with film was an early attempt to create an olfactory movie. The use of scents in movies was utilized by the theatre owners and were not part of the directors’ production. It turned out that smell distracted the audience, making it more difficult for them to focus on the film. Starting in the mid-1950s, the attempt to invent new virtual reality technology by adding smell along with movie plots (visual and sound) began to be more gradually developed. The intent of this was to create a more immersive movie-going experience. In the 1960 film, Scent of Mystery, Hans Laube’s Smell-O-Vision machine was used for the first time to release scents in synchronization with actions in the film. The ‘smell brain’ was used to release scents, which was comprised of a series of perfume containers arranged in the order that they would be released.

They were linked in a belt wound around a motorized reel.

Once the film footage rolled through the movie projector, markers on it cued the brain. The container whirred into position and needles pierced membranes on the containers to release scents at the right moment. Electric fans blew the scents through individual vent pipes, located underneath each seat in the theatre. Even the cost of outfitting the theatre to accommodate the system was very high. Scent of Mystery was the first film in which smell was integral to the plot, providing clues to the audience. For example, the killer is identified by the smell of his pipe tobacco.

In fact, there was another earlier form of Smell-O-Vision called Scentovision also invented by Laube in 1939 for the World’s Fair in New York. Laube claimed that the system could produce odors as quickly and easily as the soundtrack of a film produces sound, since the scent pipes connected to individual seats in the theatre. It allows for the timing and amount to be carefully controlled by the control board.

However, the system failed to take off.

With inspiration from Smell-O-Vision, the film director, John Waters, introduced Odorama, using scratch and sniff cards as a gimmick for his film, Polyester in 1981. The scratch and sniff card was given to the audience before the show in the same manner paper 3D glasses are distributed today. The card contained ten spots, numbered from 1 to 10, with different smells, e.g. scent of flowers, pizza, glue, gas, grass and feces.

When a number flashed on the screen, this cued the audience to scratch and sniff the appropriate spot. This method solved the problems of Smell-O-Vision but did not gain widespread usage in other films. It was only duplicated our times 26