Perfromance Reserach journal Cfp 8.3 On Smell

Tue Oct 1 21:09:55 CEST 2002

performance-research at dartington.ac.uk>

Call for Papers 8.3 On Smell

With apologies for any cross postings

Performance Research
Vol. 8 No. 3  (Autumn 2003)
'On Smell' - Call for Contributions

'On Smell' will be the third issue of Performance Research, Vol.8,
Nos.1-4, 2003 which explores the body and the senses in performance
in four related issues: 'On Voices',  'Bodiescapes'  'On Smell' and
'Moving Bodies' (tbc).

The issue is jointly edited by Richard Gough  - editor and co-founder
of 'Performance Research', Centre for Performance Research/University
of Wales Aberystwyth, UK; and guest editor Judie Christie  -
Executive Producer, Centre for Performance Research, Wales, UK.

Deadlines are as follows:
Proposals: October 30th, 2002
Draft manuscripts: December 30th, 2002
Finalized material: February 15th, 2003
Publication Date: September 2003

'On Smell' investigates the olfactory in performance and as a
potential for new performance work as well as the performative
aspects of the olfactory in daily life.

The relationships between smell and performance are many and diverse
- - historical, cultural, social, aesthetic - and there are many
historical precedents for the current interest in the olfactory
potential in performance. The editors invite contributions that
explore these relationships, either discussions of work that use
smell as an aesthetic or representational strategy, or broader
discourses about smell, especially in regard to identity,
commodification, psychology, neurology, medicine, therapy and
environmentalism.

We invite academics and practitioners working in the field to
contribute on aspects of the olfactory (smell, aroma, fragrance) in
performance ranging from contemporary performance and its analysis,
to historical accounts of rituals, religious ceremonies and civic
events, circus, magician's acts, equestrian theatre and other popular
entertainments from 'live art', performance art, installation and
gallery-based works to theatre productions and 'daily life'
occurrences in markets, trade fairs and shopping malls. We are
interested to receive proposals on the olfactory in performance about
particular periods and stylistic conventions of theatre - e.g.
Classical, Symbolist, Futurist - and most especially contemporary and
innovative use, methods and approaches. We are curious about the
range of possibilities for the use of smell in performance: as
illustration, through to evocation, provocation, disorientation,
alienation and immersion; to enhance, contra-indicate, seduce,
repulse, and trigger memories and associations. We welcome proposals,
speculations and manifestos about the possibilities for an
'orchestration' of smells in performance, or a dramaturgy, a
choreography or an 'olfactography'.

The Olfactor in Performance
[...] smell has returned to the theatre with a vengeance at the turn
of the 21st century.
(Banes, 2001)

'It stank' may not necessarily denote a less than positive response
post performance but rather a literal description of one of its
'effects'. Despite the multisensoriality - and sensorial
interdependence - of theatre and performance, sight and hearing have
been established as the dominant sensorial means, with less privilege
accorded to taste, touch, and smell. In Western culture, smell seems
to be the most undervalued of all the senses, as evidenced not least
by the linguistic adoption of sensorial terms for commendation or
compliment - visionary, good taste, a light touch, a good listener -
as opposed to the mainly derogatory examples in the smell field (with
the exception, perhaps, of the slightly ambivalent 'fragrant'.) The
demotion of smell in western cultures in line with the advance of
scientific, rational thought and advances in sanitation would appear
to be concurrent with a similar 'deodorization of the theatre' with
the advent of naturalism. However, smell is now enjoying a
renaissance in both theatre and scientific research.
It may well be that the rash of olfactory performances in the West is
yet another plot turn in the continuing narrative of the theatre's
anxiety towards the mass mediaŠ to carve out a niche for theatre
where "liveness" makes a difference. (ibid.)

In many non-western cultures, smell has been accorded a higher status
in everyday life, ritual and performance, with sophisticated
classification and codification systems determining social and
cultural meaning.

[Š] often the ethnicity or nationality invoked by the olfactory
effect is an exotic "Other" - that is, the exotic "Other" is
represented precisely as possessing a smelly (or fragrant)
identityŠŠ.and, in doing so, creates an ideological representation of
the West as odourless and therefore neutral and the norm. (ibid.)

The strong link between smell and memory (and emotion) has been
well-documented in both science and literature - indeed, now known as
the 'Proust Effect'. Scientific research has located olfactory
functions in the subcortical 'pre-cognitive' limbic part of the brain
and furthered neurological understanding of the role of emotion in
cognition and behaviour.

In humans, the relationship between cortex and subcortical brain is
not one of dominance and hierarchy but of multiplex reciprocity and
interdependenceŠ it is an emotional evaluation, not a reasoned one,
that ultimately informs our behavior.
(Cytowic, 1995)

Performance and smell are both unrecordable and ephemeral, both
'energetic', and 'dynamic', that is, always in the state of
'becoming' rather than 'stasis'. How can such phenomenon be
documented; described, recorded and scored; how can the effects be
planned, predicted and realised?

The following are categories within a taxonomy of theatrical aroma
design proposed by Sally Banes in her inspirational article
'Olfactory Performance':

to illustrate (words, characters, places, actions)
to evoke (mood, ambience)
to complement or contrast (with aural/ visual signs)
to summon specific memories
to frame the performance as ritual
to distance (to serve as a distancing device)

These categories are equally useful when considering the growing
trend of atmospherics  in commercial practice which is making an
increasing strategic employment of smell and aroma - smellscapes,
concerts of scents, olfactory scenographies, urban perfuming,
olfactory logos - in retail and marketing contexts to manipulate
consumer behaviour, and which has both contributed to and benefited
from recent research into smell.

Research, [...] has shown that aromas can also: Encourage customers
to make more considered purchase decisions; Improve the perception of
the quality of merchandise; Trigger impulse purchases; Increase
average spend per purchase.
(The Aroma Company (Europe) Ltd.,2002).

References:
Aroma Comany (Europe) Ltd. (2002) http://www.aromaco.co.uk
Banes, Sally (2001) 'Olfactory Performance' in TDR Vol.45, No.1
(T169) Spring, NYU & MIT.
Cystowic, Richard E. (1995) 'Synesthesia: Phenomenology and Neuropsychology' in
Psyche Vol.2 No.10  (ISSN: 1039-723X)
http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/v2/psyche-2-10-cytowic.html

We are looking for  - and looking forward to  - submissions from any
area of performance research, practice and scholarship. The editors
also invite responses to previous contributions on related subjects
published in PR, and especially welcome proposals for both textual
and visual work that makes use of the resources of the page. We are
interested not only in conventional academic papers, but also in
performance scores and other documents, interviews, discussions,
collaborations between artists and academics; also critical review
essays of performances and publications.

ALL proposals, submissions and general enquiries should be sent direct to:

Linden Elmhirst - Administrative Assistant
Performance Research
Dartington College of Arts
Totnes, Devon TQ9 7RD UK
tel. 0044 1803 862095
fax. 0044 1803 866053
email: <performance-research at dartington.ac.uk>
web: http://www.performance-research.net
Issue specific enquires should be directed to:
Richard Gough <rig at aber.ac.uk>

or

Judie Christie <juc at aber.ac.uk>
Performance Research is MAC based. Proposals will be accepted on hard
copy, disk or by e-mail (Apple Works, MS-Word or RTF). Please DO NOT
send images without prior agreement. For complete guidelines please
see http://www.performance-research.net.
Submission of a proposal will be taken to imply that it presents
original, unpublished work not under consideration for publication
elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript, the author(s) agree that the
exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the article have been
given to Performance Research.
*******
- --
Linden Elmhirst
Administrator
Performance Research
Dartington College of Arts
Totnes, Devon  TQ9 6EJ  UK
Tel :  +44 (0)1803 862095
Fax : +44 (0)1803 866053
e-mail : performance-research at dartington.ac.uk
http://www.performance-research.net