Memory | Witness of the Unimaginable: A New Installation Opening April 17 At Le Laboratoire Cambridge
Exhibition To Explore The Powerful Sensory Connection Between Memory, Scent And Sound
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Le Laboratoire Cambridge, a one-of-a-kind art and design center for creativity, invention and discovery, will open Memory | Witness of the Unimaginable, an installation that explores the strong sensorial relationship between memory, scent and sound. The exhibition is a stunning sensory art experience involving multiple rituals of scent and sound created by music composer Dániel Péter Biró and master perfumer Christophe Laudamiel, working with Le Laboratoire Cambridge founder David Edwards and Rachel Field, creators of the emerging technology of oMedia, and designers Baptiste Viala, Laurent Milon, and Charlie Zehnlé. The exhibition will open to the public beginning April 17, 2015. Its theme will also be represented at Cafe ArtScience throughout its duration.
During the Memory experience, participants will move before scent messaging objects (oPhones) and sound installations that conjure up historical, personal and social memories. Guest will experience Dániel Péter Biró's sound composition that combines ancient Hebrew texts with contemporary sound environments from nature and cityscapes. The scent compositions will be delivered via the oMedia technology, including an oMedia app, and oPhones, powered by tiny aroma cartridges called oChips that are activated by electronic signals to emit the scents.
"Memory is an artistic response to the growing fascination of science around the importance of scent to human health and the mind," said David Edwards. "This includes circumstances of stress and relaxation, hunger and satiation, fear and tranquility, and memory-loss."
"The ability to create a multi-media experience that can activate memory through non-representational means such as sound and scent," said composer Dániel Péter Biró, "will allow audience members to activate another part of their brain and connect to individual and collective processes of memory in a basic and profound manner."
Aroma has a strong influence on emotion, because the olfactory nerve is the only sensorial nerve with direct access to the brain. We process scent in the same region of the brain where we process memory. The scent compositions, created by Christophe Laudamiel, are designed to provoke memories and emotional reactions. Featured scents include Silence, Land of Promise, Golden Fruit, and Frankincense.
"I've always been fascinated by the mix between scents, emotions and technology," said master scent composer Christophe Laudamiel. "Technology is always necessary to 'carry' the art, like music or architecture. Perfumery and olfaction are not activities separate from other art forms."
Memory will be open from 12pm-9pm Wednesday through Friday, 11am-10pm Saturday beginning April 17. The evenings throughout the duration of the exhibition will feature "WikiBar @ Le Lab," an ongoing event in which Cafe ArtScience will overflow into Le Lab with special drinks by bartender Todd Maul in a lounge setting. Patrons will be able to demo sensorial technology including an oMusic installation with Bowers & Wilkins around the composition Vocal Vibrations by composer and inventor Tod Machover, and go on to experience the exhibition. Additionally, there will be special olfactory dinners at Cafe ArtScience centered around the Memory theme.
Le Laboratoire Cambridge is located at 650 East Kendall Street in Cambridge, MA. For more information on Memory | Witness of the Unimaginable and for future exhibitions at Le Laboratoire Cambridge please visit http://www.lelaboratoirecambridge.com/.
About Dániel Péter Biró
Dániel Péter Biró is Associate Professor of Composition and Music Theory at the School of Music at the University of Victoria. He began his studies at the Bartók Conservatory in Budapest, Hungary studying composition. He completed his PhD in composition at Princeton University in 2004. Dr. Biró has researched Hungarian folk music at the Academy of Science in Budapest and Jewish and Islamic chant in Israel and the Netherlands. Awarded the Hungarian Government's Kodály Award for Hungarian composers, his compositions have been commissioned by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the City of Darmstadt, the Stuttgart Opera, Sudwestfunk, Vancouver New Music, the ISCM, and the Imatronic Festival. Biró was awarded a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University for 2014-2015. During the time at the institute he will work on the completion of the composition cycle Mishpatim (Laws). Biro is co-editor (with Harald Krebs) of The String Quartets of Béla Bartók: Tradition and Legacy in Analytical Perspective (Oxford University Press). He is a founding member of the new music ensemble Tsilumos, co-organizer of the Salt New Music Festival and Symposium and is co-editor of Search - Journal for New Music and Culture.
About Christophe Laudamiel
Christophe Laudamiel is a perfumer, scent composer, lecturer, performer, writer, Osmocurator (™) and trained chemist who has created fragrances for Houses such as Estee Lauder, Ralph Lauren, Burberry, Tom Ford, Clinique, Michael Kors, Humiecki & Graef, Nest, and Abercrombie & Fitch. He is Master Perfumer at DreamAir LLC, a unique enterprise in bespoke fragrances. With colleague Christoph Hornetz, he has designed Air Sculpture ® scents for such places as the Langham Place Fifth Avenue Hotel, Giorgio Armani and Emporio Armani (select locations worldwide). Laudamiel authored and managed 30+ scents for the first Scent Opera (Guggenheim Museums, New York and Bilbao, 2009). He is the first and only perfumer to have scents formally archived and has founded the not-for-profit Academy of Perfumery in the USA. Christophe is known for his pioneering work across fragrant applications, leaving behind a trail of patents, new technologies and, of course, unforgettable signature scents.
About David Edwards
David Edwards is an inventor, writer, and founder of Le Laboratoire Paris, and Le Laboratoire Cambridge. Harvard Professor of Idea Translation in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Wyss Institute Faculty Member, David is a member of the National Academies of Engineering in USA and France, a member of the National Academy of Inventors (USA), and a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of the French Ministry of Culture. He is the author of many articles, patents, and books of fiction and nonfiction.
SOURCE Le Laboratoire Cambridge
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