Scentevents and Harris Fragrances participated in the Recent Scent Opera Performance and Symposium at Pomona College Benton Museum of Art.
The performance showed an original video montage coordinated with a recording of Richard Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony. Strauss’ epic work comprises 22 “chapters” in which the music evokes the sounds, odors, images, and phenomena encountered during a day-long hike in the Alps
Several chapters were accompanied by fragrances diffused in the performance space and also presented to individual attendees in fragrance test strips, intended to evoke the subject of the chapter (e.g., “Waterfall”, “Flowering Meadow”).
Prior to the performance, Neal Harris was a featured panelist in a symposium entitled “Evolving Aesthetic, Legal, and Neuroscientific Perspectives on Olfaction and Scent” which explored the mostly unrealized potential of fragrance in performance and conceptual works, and the capacity of fragrance for individuals with limited sight or hearing.