How a Whale Becomes a Molecule: A Geography of Modern Olfaction (online)

Olfactory Research Notes is a new lecture series that presents important research done in olfaction, directly from the people who do it.

Geographic thinking helps us contemplate the making of the world as we know it, how power moves through things, matter, nature and the ideas we have about it. Leonora Zoninsein studies the geography of the senses: the material history of smell and the way it is made in specific times and places. The practice of smell is thus a method of studying time & space, and the dynamically changing world.

Join us as Leonora Zoninsein explores the New England whaling industry--and the practices on the whaler ship deck-- as a genesis moment of the modern olfactory palette. She will trace how the modern sense of smell emerges through interconnected imperial and industrial practices that braid the hunt, taxonomic science, and routinized commodity production at new, global scales. This talk will think specifically about how the means of production and the sense of smell evolve together in the making of oceanic media.

ABOUT LEONORA ZONINSEIN

Leonora is a Brasilian-American artist, researcher and perfumer with a PhD in Human Geography. She studies the senses at the intersection of political ecology, the history of science, and post-colonial natures. Her eponymous book manuscript, How a Whale Becomes a Molecule: A Geography of Modern Olfaction, explores how the production of notions of biological and chemical essence shape political atmospheres today. She makes signature and conceptual scents through her perfume studio, NIGHT AIR in Chinatown, NYC.

Photo credit: Leonora Zoninsein

ATTENDANCE AND REFUND POLICY

This is an online class that will take place on Zoom. The Zoom link will be sent by email approximately 24 hours before the class. Lest this email end up in your spam folder, please be sure to add hello@artandolfaction.com and noreply@order.eventbrite.com to your address book.

+ Learn more about how we teach and our community guidelines here: https://artandolfaction.com/newcomers/.

+ We will upload the class recording after the end of the session, and share it for 7 days with attendees. This video is view-only, and expires at the end of the 7 day window.

+ Unfortunately, we cannot offer refunds or credit for this class. Note also that event tickets are non-transferable.