It’s been a few weeks since I saw Ivo van Hove’s Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, which ended with a waterfall of stage blood that drenched the huddled performers, staining their all-white costumes and the all-white set. But as startling as it was to look at, it was even more unsettling to smell.
6 comments:
I have never seen the word “aruomaturgy” but I kind of like it. I have heard of people trying to incorporate smells into their theatrical productions with limited success. I remember a playground piece two years ago that was performed in the dark and the whole idea was to make your other senses work more so they had smells of pizza cooking and flour or water sprinkled on the audience members. This kind of the theater that is very intentional about using smells could be really effective I think, but other, more subtle things might take audience members a longer time to recognize as a part of the show. I wonder if one day there will be smell designers credited in programs. It might take that far before people start to recognize it as a part of the show. Someone should come up with some kind of infrastructure in theaters that can spread a smell throughout the house on a cue - that would be fun.
This article certainly was interesting to read, and honestly was not anything I ever thought would be part of the conversation in theater. To consider smell to be part of the design for theater is certainly out there, however it makes sense that this might be the next thing to happen in our idea of design. Theater designers are always looking for the next thing that we can use to tell a story, and smell might be that thing. Your sense of smell is the sense most associated with memory, and therefore there might be a great advantage to using smell in a show. Utilizing smell could potentially help in creating a more immersive experience for the audience, and could add deeper meaning to a moment. The use of smell could create a better connection between the audience and the story. I do think there is an interesting future with aromas and performance and I will certainly be interested to see if this comes up more.
I wanted to comment on this article because I have wondered which department imposed scents would fall under. Would it be props, scenic, or a whole new category? In the example in the article, I think I would have gotten tired of that smell in particular if I had been working on the show, but scents can also be pleasant. I have not been to a show that too my knowledge imposed a scent, but it has been a crucial aspect of a lot of Disney Parks’ entertainment.
Designing scents is one thing and as the article addresses, controlling them and their directionality is another. It is also interesting to look at how different people interpret smells. Much like other visual elements of design, people have varying associations with different smells. Two people could be reminded of their wedding days but have very different connotations to that memory. There are endless possibilities with this that make “aroma-turgy” even more difficult to work with but it also can add an entirely new playing field to the world of performance.
-Ariel Bernhard
This is such an inspiring piece. As I was reading the first paragraph, it actually reminded me of a 4dx movie theater. It would require a lot of budget (and consequently high ticket price), but it would be cool if some theater could install a 4dx seatings so that audience could feel the movement and scents on particular play scenes. Now it looks like it’s being treated more as a special event that only certain people could enjoy since people cannot entirely control how the air flows… yet. I think relevant technology would be invented sooner or later.
Aroma-turgy seems like they are more often used in immersive form of theater or in site-specific exhibitions as it is also mentioned in the article, but if it gets more generalized, it would be another distinctive feature for the live theater compared to the ones that are streamed via screens at home.
This is so cool. I had my first interaction with smell in the theater world when I was watching a production of True West, and during the toast scene I could start to smell the toast as it was cooking. In the moment it took me out of the production, just because it was something I had never experienced before. I had to stop and make sure I wasn’t having a stroke. Maybe if this becomes more normalised, it can start becoming more immersive for me. But on the few occasions when I have smelled a specific scent, I’ve noticed it and it has taken me out of the moment.
It is very possible that I am only noticing the poorly executed or more gimmicky examples, and that the more nuanced, atmospheric scents have not caught my attention. If that is the case, I would be really interested to know what productions I have seen that used an aroma and how immersed I felt.
One concern that comes to mind for me is, don’t people have allergies or sensitivities to specific scents? If this becomes commonplace, will there need to be warnings like there would be for flashing lights or gunshots?
I'll be very interested to see how this develops. In the short term. I wouldn't be surprised if we started seeing scratch and sniff elements in the “plays by mail” we read about last week.
Reading things like this about new or different elements of design always makes me wonder if it will be the next big thing. I wonder how practical the practice would be in space, even at CMU. How much money would it cost, and how loud and safe are the supplies needed? I know that smell technology is widely used in Disney, sometimes in movie theaters, and now, in some theatre spaces. However, if this technology becomes more standardized, will it still have a significant impact? I would imagine there would also be people who become specifically smell designers, and I wonder if that would constitute universities adding aroma majors to their theatre programs. Additionally, what would the ethical implications be in terms of sensory-sensitive audience members? For example, would people with allergies and smell sensitivity be unable to attend performances? Alternatively, would adding aroma to every production significantly improve audience connection?
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