The purpose behind this project is to create access to the body of knowledge and the material culture around perfumery. As a field, perfumery is most commonly archived and tracked by the companies that produce or distribute the scents, yet a growing number of artists and academics are engaged in a critical practice involving scent. Wonderworks would create a model for information sharing that links knowledge and experiences to objects, objects to books, and more.
Screenshot of the Wonderworks website
Project Title
Wonderworks
Contributed by
Saskia Wilson-Brown
Founder / Director,
The Institute for Art and Olfaction
Wonderworks is an archive-in-progress that gathers information on the collection of perfumes, aromatic objects, and books housed by the Institute for Art and Olfaction.
Project Goals
Special Thanks
Anna Gerber, a creative director who works with story and technology, is providing visual direction for the project. Daniel Krasofski has overseen the data entry for the perfume archive, alongside a team of volunteers.
Links
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https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DXULg5HZPYg7zfB8JEPjduI8kwxNojpzbzSd7m_r7xM/edit?usp=sharingGoogle database of the archive, as a work in progress.
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Home page for the project, as work in progress.
Reflections
Briefly describe your project’s timeline and development.
We started with a research phase to learn how we could manage the data of more than 2,000 objects in our existing archive. We then went into a data entry phase, where teams of volunteers manually added the names of the books and perfumes, as well as important information like publisher, company, and more to a simple Google spreadsheet.
Reflections
What do you think went really well?
The simplicity of a public Google spreadsheet allowed us to create an archive of material culture that can be searched, sorted, and collaborated on. However, there are firm limitations to the tools we chose, including creating rich connections and linking to other parts of the database.
Reflections
What were the outcomes?
There are no measurable outcomes yet, as the project is ongoing.
Reflections
What was most helpful in pulling this project off?
Since the most arduous part of this project was data entry, what helped us build the database was our team of volunteers, particularly those who worked in libraries.
Reflections
Based on your experience, what advice do you have to share?
Considering what data to track early is crucial, as we found ourselves doubling back to add tracking numbers and other pertinent information to objects after the fact. With thousands of objects, that's no small task.
Reflections
How do you plan to continue this project?
Moving forward, we plan to evolve this project by building a custom front end to manage the database as well as the functionality for people to enter stories and memories related to the objects in the collection. This will allow for a living archive of material culture, illuminated by human experience with scent.
This case study was generously contributed by
Saskia Wilson-Brown
The Institute for Art and Olfaction
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