SOIREE AROMATISÉE - CARO VERBEEK

LOCATION: OLD OBSERVATORY

LABEL: TALK

TIME: 19:30

When the sun goes down, some plants, such as jasmine and honeysuckle, release a completely different and much more intense palette of scents. Darwin called these fragrant flowers 'flores tristes' because 'nobody' would smell them at that time. They are also meant as wordless communication between plants and insects and not at all 'intended' for humans. But it was precisely these nocturnal aromas that inspired countless artists and musicians a century ago, such as Claude Débussy, who wrote no less than two pieces of music about them. He thought that his sounds could actually evoke scents. This phenomenon, in which the stimulation of one sense causes a sensation in another, is sometimes called 'synesthesia'.

Come listen and smell during this interactive lecture with live scenting by and from fragrance historian Caro Verbeek.