The Dimitri Dutruv Smell Dictionary (Invention #10) Infographic

There are issues with using smell for communication, such as people like myself, who suffer from hayfever and allergies, who would be rendered effectively illiterate.

©2014 James Mathurin

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.7 Infographic

Here's another installment of the technological genius of Dimitri Dutruv.

©2014 James Mathurin

Worst Donut Flavour Infographic

Happy 2014, and we're starting the New Year with a new infographic.

©2014 James Mathurin

The inventions of Dimitri Dutruv pt.10

After having developed technology for converting sound to smell, Dutruv embarked on a more ambitious offshoot of the project.

Having converted sounds to smell, Dutruv was convinced that language, meaning and, eventually, words, could be converted into specific smells. To this end, while working on several other projects over a 3 year period, he developed a "smell dictionary", a collection of 35,000 words (with 35,000 meanings), encoded as a series of scents, recorded on specially-treated pages.

This photograph shows an early test version of the smell dictionary (with only 1,500 words), which Dutruv used to test different treatments for stopping different 'smell words' blending into each other. 
Some pages are still annotated (in conventional pen) with comments such as,
"Some spreading between 'goose' and 'gondola'. Distinct impression of a bird-shaped boat, similar to those found in some amusement parks formed. Interesting, but a failure to clearly communicate meaning."
Photograph by J Dueck.

 ©2013 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

The world’s smelliest piece of art

The world’s smelliest piece of art was Self-portrait in Tofu, a sculpture by Dutch artist Kurzt Voegells. Although relatively odour-free when it was first exhibited in May 2003, it soon began to decompose, and caused the entire Anstschlogge gallery of Eindhoven to be evacuated between the 4^th and 7^th of September that year. After it was destroyed in a controlled explosion, Voegells announced, 

“I had not planned for this, but I feel it came to express the disgust I feel for society far more poetically than my food-sculpting abilities could possibly have expressed.”

Dutch police evacuate the area around the Anstschlogge gallery on June 15th 2003, immediately before Self-portrait in Tofu was destroyed. Riot police were required, as the horrible smell was deemed to be responsible for 17 separate scuffles and 2 small riots breaking out. Photograph by Karen Eliot.

 ©2012 James Mathurin

The inventions of Dimitri Dutruv Pt. 7

Dipping back into the research and experimentation files of Dimitri Dutruv, we find his files relating to his work with comatose medical patients. This became an issue close to Dutruv's heart, as so many of his devices seemed to result in, at best, comas. 

Dutruv was convinced that there was a flaw in the normal encouragement of patients' families to spend time with them, talking to them, and also reminding them of fondly-held memories from their life. 

In his notes, Dutruv writes,

"The patients are besieged with an endless parade of comforting memories, relaxing, familiar voices, even pleasant smells. Isn't this how we might soothe an infant to sleep? Where are the thins that wake us from wonderful dreams? Where are the biting insects? Where are the screaming children? Where are the cold, sharp, elbows of our bed-sharing spouse?"

Dutruv, theorising that it is harder to sleep when being annoyed, developed a programme for treating comatose patients by a systematic programme of annoyances:

• Mechanised poking machines;
• Regularly shifting room 'super-odourisers", including the scents of rotten fish, animal excrement, and acrid smoke;
• Bedsheets treated with itching powder;
• Taped recordings of babies screaming, annoying songs, and various recordings which came to form part of the Now, That’s What I Call Animals Getting Slaughtered series.

 

One of the coma wards where Dutruv carried out experiments of his coma programme. These women were dressed in materials and patterns which they disliked, while the room was filled with the scent of rotten eggs. After 3 month, the test was ruled unsuccessful, and the ward was closed for 3 months for fumigation. This particular round of tests was in a Greek hospital. Photograph by RobW_.

©2012 James Mathurin

The world’s worst donut flavour

The world’s worst donut flavour was Stinky Bishop Icing with dry Marmite Sprinkles. The topping was developed was developed as part of a 1998 experiment by the Research & Development Department of Tasty Treets inc., a confectionary company based in New Zealand. At an inquest called after 3 people went blind at a taste trial fro the donut, head of development, Buddy ‘Bud’ Chappers said, “We have spent several years chasing the Holy Grail of the perfect flavour, or ‘PF’, and after running into dead end after dead end, we decided to try to formulate the worst flavour possible, or ‘WFP’, and try to reverse it. I never expected that it could permanently disable someone.”

There are few surviving photographs of the offending donuts. Few photographers could stand the smell long enough to focus their cameras. This photograph by tommy.chheng was taken with the aid of a gas mask, which was then disposed of in a hospital furnace.

 ©2012 James Mathurin