Title: Fallible
Year: 2016
Length: 03:49
Format: HD video
Credits: Cinematography: Raewyn Turner & Brian HarrisEditing and green screen: Raewyn Turner
To detect the scent variations in flowers, unscented flowers rotate above a vase which holds a sensor. As the rotating flowers are passed over the smell sensor a computer fan draws their scent past a ceramic bead sensor and a microprocessor measures a voltage dependent on the scent concentration and type. The notes are synthesised in piano voice. The sound changes as the flowers wilt and die. Synopsis: The political and cultural interests of the 1700’s that sent out explorers to collect exotic and rare botanical specimens also created an aesthetic of beauty that embodied the precarious balance of life; one tilt out of balance, one degree of heat, one minute and its gone.
We’re exploring the fragrance of contemporary existence, illusion, and sense-making in a largely visual culture. We’re interested in subliminal odours, airborne particles that affect minds and emotions.
Thematic tags: environment and ecology, technology, history, affect, sound, olfactory
Title: Lucky
Year: 2006
Length: 21:51
Format: Digital
Lucky is a documentary about the making of a fragrance to fortify the lower senses of the gambler playing with chance on pokie machines, which are essentially random number generators. Each perfume bottle is unique as there is a random number generator in the design.
Thematic tags: environment and ecology, technology, affect, olfactory
Title: Pick Up Styx
Year: 2008
Length: 01:04
Format: Interactive software
Credits:
The video interacts with the movements of the players playing a game of pick up sticks which were each fragranced with celebrity perfumes brought to market during the years ofthe war on terror 2001-2008
Thematic tags: politics, history, olfactory, technology, interactive
Raewyn Turner’s interdisciplinary work is concerned with cross-sensory perception and the uncharted territories of the senses. Her works have been shown in numerous national and international exhibitions including Museum of Contemporary Art, LA, Parque de las Ciencias, Granada, Spain, 11th Prague Quadrennial of Scenography and Theatre Architecture 2007,Prumyslovy Palace, Prague, Argentina, Georges Pompidou Center, Te Papa Museum, and Academy of Fine Arts, New Zealand. She has worked with olfaction since 1999 and in collaboration with Dr Richard Newcomb, molecular biologist, NZ. In 2011 she was recipient of a Fulbright Travel Grant for an artists residency at Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia. Her works include videos, interactive installations, performances, exhibitions and large scale international performance in theatres and stadiums, working as a concept and design artist and lighting designer in collaborations with musicians, orchestras and choreographers.