A creative collaboration between the worlds of perfumery and poetry investigating what
happens when you connect the pen and the nose….
Perfume and the Pen is a short project which exists to capture the public imagination
around the joy of fragrance, by positioning it alongside a poetry, a very different, yet
beguilingly parallel art form.
It is being organised by Odette Toilette of Scratch+Sniff Events (on the fragrance side)
and by poet and poetry editor Claire Trevian. IFRA United Kingdom is supportive of the
project and acting informally to advise on and help promote the Perfume and the Pen
programme.
The plan? We are commissioning ten poets, who will each be issued with a
commercially available fragrance. They will be challenged to write a new poem inspired
by that scent. Only once they have finished writing will they told what their perfume is.
We’re also keen to collaborate with perfumers, hence this request for interest. Three of
the poets will have the additional opportunity to meet with a perfumer in a creative
exchange – a meeting of minds to explore the connections and differences between
the two disciplines. As part of this, the poet will give their perfumer ‘buddy’ a poem
from their repertoire, and the perfumer will compose in scratch-form (ie. rough draft
only!) a fragrance inspired by that poem.
All ten poems, together with the three which inspired the perfumes, will be brought
together in a printed anthology, published by poetry press Penned in the Margins.
As well as documenting the process via photo, video and social media, we launch the
project at a special Scratch+Sniff event in London on June 10th where the public will
discover the poems, be able to try the scents on spray strips, and the story behind the
project. We aim to take the event to other venues and events.
Does this sound intriguing?
We hope so! We would love to engage three perfumers who would be interested in
joining us for the journey. Our criteria are as follows:
– Keen to participate in something a little experimental and creative
– Happy to host a session with a perfumer where they can see how you work
– Available to do the above, and create to a draft fragrance in March/April 2012
– Happy to do media and profiling opportunities off the back of the project
– Free in principle on June 10th to be in London for the event
This is an early call to see general interest. If you like the sound of the project and
would like to know more, please email odette@scratchandsniffevents.com.