Mediality of Smells / Medialite des odeurs: Cultural Interactions: Studies in the Relationship between the Arts

The study of scents and all things olfactory is thriving, a sign of the great interest that our information-based society feels for a sense that seems to offer a direct and immediate experience of reality. But smells resist description and representation, especially given that they are closely linked to individual personal experience, and their perception has changed through time and space in a myriad of ways. This volume aims to contribute to the flourishing multidisciplinary exchanges around smells by examining the question of their mediality, focusing on the mechanisms by which the olfactory experience, as well as the scents themselves, circulate and are diffused, but also by exploring the modes of smell as a medium in itself. Drawing on a wide variety of approaches, cultural zones, and historical periods, this volume gathers the contributions of twenty-one researchers who specialize in this field in order to explore the multiple aspects of olfactory culture, which characterizes and shapes our relations to smells.

La richesse de l'actualit en matire d'odeurs et d'odorat tmoigne du vif intrt de nos socits de l'information pour un sens qui semble offrir une saisie directe et immdiate du rel. Circulant de manire trs variable travers le temps et l'espace, les odeurs font l'objet d'une perception qui rsiste d'autant plus la description et la reprsentation qu'elle reste individuelle et lie l'histoire personnelle. Ce volume vise contribuer aux changes interdisciplinaires sur l'olfaction travers la question de la mdialit, en s'interrogeant sur les mcanismes par lesquels l'exprience olfactive et les odeurs sont transmises et diffuses, mais aussi en explorant les modalits de l'odeur comme mdium. Proposant une diversit d'approches, d'aires culturelles et de priodes, ce volume rassemble les contributions de vingt-et-un spcialistes qui tudient comment la culture olfactive caractrise et construit nos rapports aux odeurs.