WHAT IS THE ODORBET

Language Changes Everything

Please enjoy a growing vocabulary for our noses. It is through language that we change our understanding. 

Internationally sourced originally by artist Catherine Haley Epstein and olfactory art historian Caro Verbeek in 2020, Odorbet is continually updated by Catherine and other generous contributors since then. Most recently Christophe Laudamiel has joined as an advisor to the project. This is a labor of love - done without committee or confusion, and informally all in the spirit of elevating the language we use for our most precious and misunderstood sense. If you are interested in contributing words or essays please contact us.

CATHERINE HALEY EPSTEIN is a multi-disciplinary artist, award-winning writer, designer, and curator. She wrote a book titled Nose Dive (2019) which explores the intersection of creativity with the science and anthropology of scent. Articles of note include “Primal Art: Notes on the Medium of Scent”, Temporary Art Review (2016). She writes about contemporary art and practice and culture at her platform Mindmarrow. She conducts workshops on the use of scent in creative practices, advises companies on scent-related projects, and continues to collaborate with artists and writers on unique initiatives that explore intersections between art and other disciplines. She is currently a candidate for her Masters in the art of counseling with a focus on Psychodynamic Theory at Northwestern University.

CHRISTOPHE LAUDAMIEL is a scientist/scentist, artist, Perfume-Plume award winning writer, and master perfumer for DreamAir studios in New York City and Bélair Lab in Tokyo. Christophe has a mission to educate the public on fragrance, to defend perfumery as an art, and to facilitate important initiatives such as the Perfumery Code of Ethics. 

His work was integrated in pieces by Isabel Andriessen, Peter De Cupere, Orlan, Thierry Mugler and Anicka Yi and has entered the likes of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Grasse Perfume Museum, the Harvard University Archives, the Swarovski Foundation and the Tibetan Rubin Museum of Art, NYC. Christophe has exhibited at major venues including the Basel, Cooper Hewitt, Guggenheim-NYC/Bilbao and MoMA-Istanbul museums, World Economic Forums in Davos, and inside the USA and Swiss Pavilions at World Expos. Christophe is the winner of several awards in chemistry and perfumery including a lifetime award from the Institute of Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles, and is an inventor on 17 patents.  He is a relentless advocate of perfumery education and ethics with 150 lectures and speeches to the public, law makers and in the academia, along with a manifesto, several book chapters and scientific articles, a constant quest for new or little known ingredients and establishing a revolutionary code of ethics.

CARO VERBEEK is an art historian and curator specialized in the senses of smell and touch and the intersensory phenomenon synaesthesia. She has just completed a PhD on (art) historical smells (with IFF and the Rijksmuseum). She is also part of the team of research professionals at the first of its kind olfactory heritage project Oeduropa. 

She has developed several courses on sensory history and sensory skills, including ‘The Other Senses’ at the Royal Academy of Arts (The Hague) and ‘Knowing by Sensing’ at the Vrije Universiteit. 

Her books and articles include “Inhaling Memories” (Senses & Society, 2013) and “Something in the Air - Scent in Art” (Villa Rot, 2015). Verbeek is also the founder of the scent culture program ‘Odorama’ at Mediamatic (Amsterdam). 

Her aim is to re-narrate history from a sensory perspective by reconstructing and presenting historical scents and tactile poetry in museums and beyond.