Walking into the cavernous first-floor gallery of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Philadelphia—where “RE_________,” an exhibition by the Norwegian-born, Berlin-based artist Sissel Tolaas is currently on view (through Dec. 30)—feels l

Experiencing true silence is probably impossible. The closest I’ve come is perhaps my 30 minutes inside Doug Wheeler’s “PSAD Synthetic Desert III” (1971), an installation presented at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2017 that gave visitors an experience of nea

What gives a physical movement meaning? There are myriad answers: context, shape, intention. For internationally renowneDimitri Chamblas, there’s another, primary answer: speed. “If I go to shake your hand, you would understand because of the movement, but

Growing up in the Midwest, I wasn’t exposed to the widest range of foods. True to the Scandinavian heritage and harsh widoro wat. But out of all these first experiences of more far-flung tastes and flavors, none stands out in my memory as sharply a

Each of us has our own individual way of following the changing of the seasons, a private choreography in relationship tIs My Favorite Flavor, which just launched its first issue, appropriately titled Summer! Is My Favorite Flavor, at the design-focused Head Hi bookshop and café in Brooklyn.

It’s late August, and I’m walking on Grand Street in Lower Manhattan. It’s one of those summer evenings that’s cooler thAlex Tatarsky, and as I head east from the subway, I pass through the dense, networked scents of the edge of Chinatown: the briny tanthe famous bialy shop. Approaching Abrons Art Center, where Tatarsky is doing pick-up rehearsals for an out-of-town run of their show Dirt Trip, this close-packed olfactory landscape opens up into something with more space: a faint vegetal whiff from a small vaca

A blooming magnolia tree, decked out in its distinctive, cup-shaped flowers, is one of the most welcome and fragrant sig

At first glance, the term “deaf sound artist” might seem an oxymoron. The Berlin-based, Korean-American artist ChristineFace Opera II,” for example, features an all-deaf cast but no signing, upending the expectations of hearing viewers. For her recent pCaptioning the City,” Kim installed large-scale descriptions of various noises across Manchester, England, urging viewers to reconsider how

The history of bourbon is an ambery fog of competing local legends. Depending on what Kentucky county you’re in, you’ll

For many, perfume provides a layer of color, texture, or inflection on top of our daily lives. The addition of scent canThe Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO), a decade-old Los Angeles–based nonprofit founded by Saskia Wilson-Brown, has become a magnet for people who thin

The search for a quality podcast can seem like looking for a diamond in the rough. But in the ever-growing expanse of trFocus on Flowers, a weekly gardening podcast and public radio program hosted by veteran gardener Moya Andrews, is one of them.

For time immemorial gardens have served as spaces for rest, reflection, and communion with the natural world. But in todhas written, “Ultimately, every garden is an ideology.”

Across many industries, people are preparing for a seismic shift as the metaverse coalesces with everyday life. While tha range of emotions, these unified and all-encompassing worlds, experienced through various augmented and virtual realities, present ample

Think about the scent of your favorite fragrance. Chances are, it’s a variation on a long-established olfactory concoctiinula, a common weed in his native Corsica, the mountainous Mediterranean island. “In French, weeds are called mauvaises herbes, or bad herbs,” he said in a statement. “I think it’s unfair, because they are bountiful and have many healthful properMal-Aimé, a scent he created for his fragrance house Parfum d’Empire. In Corticchiato’s deft hands, the plant, which sprouts clumps of small, hairy yellow flowerheads–produces a startling

How might society benefit from understanding the ways in which the brain processes smell? John Crimaldi, a professor in Ecological Fluid Dynamics Lab, has more than a few answers. Getting clarity around brain function, he says, could lead to breakthroughs in a wide ran

San Francisco–based perfumer Yosh Han is sense-driven. In addition to her own perfume line, Yosh, she is a sommelier, has served as a tasting judge in chocol

Walking through a museum, you’ll likely consume most artworks using your eyes. Enjoying the output of olfactory artist Maki Ueda, who uses scent as her primary medium, however, requires your nose⁠—and sometimes takes place in spaces with no visual

If you look around your living space, there’s a good chance that all the furniture in it is designed for adult use and cNalata Nalata’s upcoming exhibition, “Starter Chair” (May 14–22),  celebrates furniture that was lovingly made on a different scale—one specifically for children.

Scents are among the most powerful, and the most personal, sensory triggers. Because the olfactory nerve connects directPerfume: In Search of Your Signature Scent, deeply understands the connections between smells and feelings. A driven, self-taught student of fragrance and its hisThe Black Narcissus—a captivating combination of technical and historical analysis of scents, pop cultural musings, and personal memoir—he illuminates the myriad facets of scent and its powers, revealing his encyclopedic knowledge of

Tucked between a seafood market and a dumpling shop in Manhattan’s Chinatown, a small storefront showcases a suite of exGlade: To Touch Painting” (through April 30), an exhibition of scented paintings by Brazilian artist Luiza Gottschalk, currently on view at the Olfactory Art Keller.

Stefan Sagmeister is a contemporary polymath. Following his curiosity through many forms, the Austrian-born, New York–baobjects, installations, and participatory artworks throughout his decades-long career. (Sagmeister speaks about some of these projects and others on Ep. 8 of our Time Sensitive podcast, and on Ep.106 of our At a Distance podcast.) While his output, at first glance, might appear to move wildly between subjects, a closer look reveals a consistent i

The Italian writer and thinker Umberto Eco, when explaining how he came up with the title of his beloved novel The Name of the Rose, wrote that he chose it “because the rose is a symbolic figure so rich in meanings that by now it has hardly any meanin