The Inventions of Dimitri Dutruv pt. 9 Infographic Nasal Synaesthesia

Back to the world of Dimitri Dutruv, and some attempts to mingle the senses.

©2014 James Mathurin 

The Inventions of Dimitri Dutruv pt. 9

After becoming fascinated by the phenomenon of synaesthesia in the mid 1980s, Dutruv started research to develop technology to convert information from one sense into another. After experimenting with conversions between sound and taste, smell and sound, touch and vision and vision and taste, in 1987 Dutruv was able to establish a mechanism for converting smell to sound.

To demonstrate the technology, he converted several pieces of music into smell, using a series of chemical sprays to correspond to the different sounds. Those pieces included:

Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusic;

An instrumental version of The Beatles song Penny Lane;
Several tracks from Kraftwerk's Tour De France album, and;
Jimi Hendrix's seminal performance of The Star Spanged Banner, recorded live at Woodstock.

Although the technology worked successfully, the mix of chemicals induced allergic reactions in several of the participants.

Margerie Fontaine, a french test subject who volunteered to take part in the Penny Lane section of testing in Spring of 1988. In her debriefing after completion of the tests, she said, "I'm more of a Wings fan, but the smell of the Beatles makes me appreciate their work in many different ways." Photograph by by The Consortium.

 ©2013 James Mathurin