Smelling Committee

Odor Data Bank on Platial

comrade — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 05:53:14 +0000

Join the odor-mapping frenzy on the Smelling Committee’s Odor Data Bank courtesy of platial.com. Add your smells to the map!

Smelling Committee d.u.m.b.o.

comrade — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 03:55:15 +0000

The Smelling Committee awakens us to local ecology through the goofy yet meaningful sensory exploration of our neighborhoods. Smelling Committee initiates are invited to explore sniff-along audio guides and post found smells with their cell phones to an online geo-tagged odor data bank. During the DUMBO Art Under the Bridge Festival, the whole of DUMBO is turned into an audio tour of odors. Look for plaques to call in for an audio guide, or download the podcast . (September 28 – 30, 2007)

More info >

The Smelling Committee is a collaborative project by Caitlin Berrigan, James Daher & Michael McBean.

Storefront for Art & Architecture

comrade — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:17:15 +0000

LOST AND FOUND CITY AT STOREFRONT FOR ART AND ARCHITECTURE
MARCH 3-24, 2007

OPENING SATURDAY MARCH 3, 6-8pm
Exhibition Features Artists Exploring Urban Life Through Sound, Sculpture, Installation, Performance, and New Media at Various Locations in New York City

STOREFRONT FOR ART AND ARCHITECTURE
Location: 97 Kenmare Street, New York City
Exhibition Hours: Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

For further information about the exhibition, visit the website http://www.bard.edu/ccs/lostandfoundcity

Until March 24th, mark your olfactory findings in the neighborhood on a map from the gallery, hang it up and receive an official Smelling Committee badge!

Smelling Committee [Nolita]
Inspired by the olfactory bravado of the Brooklyn Smelling Committee of 1891, artists Caitlin Berrigan and Michael McBean invite reflection upon the ephemeral, odiferous fabric of urban neighborhoods. We use our eyes to navigate geographies, but it is our sense of smell that ties us most tautly to our emotional memories. Histories of New York are ripe with scents and stinks, some rousing citizen action just as the Smelling Committee of 1891 discovered oil refinery pollution along Newtown Creek. The Smelling Committee revival attempts to map a small portion of this heritage as a collective endeavor. Participants are invited to embark upon an audio-guided investigation of the aromatic territories of the Lower East Side, and to join the ranks of the Smelling Committee by returning a map of their discoveries for comparison and reflection. Perhaps patterns of culture, pollution, cuisine, disarray, weeds and refuse will emerge – developing a new natural history of the stench and fragrance of twenty-first century New York. Caitlin Berrigan and Michael McBean are interested in creating multi-sensorial objects, spaces and experiences inspired by instances of absurdity.

The Storefront show is composed of a number of newly commissioned and modified works that reactivate the space, including recorded olfactory tours of the urban environment created by Caitlin Berrigan and Michael McBean, designed for visitors to remap and renavigate Nolita and the Lower East Side; architectural/urban investigations and pedagogical projects of CUP (Center for Urban Pedagogy); Jonah Freeman’s imaginary megabuilding as city; a new outdoor urban projection/intervention by LURE (Aaron Igler plus collaborators); Mark Koven’s real-time, live-feed interactive/participatory work that explores history, geography, and the claim of territory; Mads Lynnerup’s performative-video infiltrations of other people’s navigations of the neighborhood’s streets; Jill Magid’s performance about her metaphorical seduction of a New York City police officer in the subterranean environs of the subway system; Costa Vece’s flags made of a bricolage of discarded clothing that contest national/local identities; and Stephen Vitiello’s sound installation that creates a provocative interpenetration of city and nature.

Audio Guide Nolita

comrade — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:47:16 +0000

Smelling Committee members are advised to borrow an audio guide from the Storefront for Art & Architecture, or download mp3 tracks below. The corresponding locations are suggestions only.

Your duty is to take a map and mark your own smell-findings on it, along with any pertinent information and associations you may have with a particular odor. Please use the blank side to map locations, such as your own neighborhood, that are not included on the front.

Members who return their findings to Storefront for Art & Architecture will be inducted into the Smelling Committee with the receipt of an official badge.

Download all tracks: smellingcommittee.zip [39.3 MB]

Download Individual mp3’s:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Nolita Portable Map

comrade — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:12:54 +0000

Visit the suggested numbered locations on the audio guide tour (numbers correspond to the track number), and the lettered locations for your own inspection.

Mark your discoveries on the map, or your own neighborhood on the blank side, and return your map to Storefront for Art & Architecture by March 24th, 2007 to receive an official Smelling Committee Badge.

Download storefrontmap.pdf [550 k]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Williamsburg Sanborn Map

comrade — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:35:10 +0000

Download the Sanborn map used to chart olfaction in Williamsburg [7.6 MB]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Official Badge

comrade — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:24:50 +0000

These badges cannot be bought… they must be earned through participation!

Conflux Festival Photos

comrade — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:13:38 +0000

View photo documentation and read about the Smelling Committee live tour at the Conflux Festival 2006.