Smells and Aesthetics

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In the introduction to The Aroma of Righteousness Deborah Green writes about how the sense of smell is left out in all sorts of ways, in all different kinds of studies, because it is one of the “lower sense.” I was particularly interested in how this related to the study of aesthetics. I am in an aesthetics course this semester and I had not thought of smell even once before reading this chapter. Green references someone who completely rules out smell as aspect of aesthetics. People written their pens dry about the aesthetics of visual and auditory sensations but completely ignore smell. I think smell (and touch, but maybe not so much taste) could be a great thing to study aesthetically. We do basically the same things with smell as we do with sight and hearing. Way may not make “art” or museums or theaters for olfactory sensations, but we do have a huge perfume industry and we’re constantly trying to make the space around us smell good just like we try to make the space around us look good and feel good and sound good.
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I wonder if there weren’t these value judgements placed on smell and the study of it, making it out to be a lower or lesser sense, if we would consider scents to be aesthetic objects. It seems that these traditions studied by Green certainly saw scents as more aesthetic, powerful, tangible things. My first thought was that the decline of religion’s influence post-modernity may have something to do with the decline in the importance of smell in our understanding. But I realize that in my limited experience, I haven’t noticed scent to be a particularly prevalent aspect in religious worship/celebrations I’ve been a part of. The only one that comes to mind is Pagans who use smug sticks to cleanse and direct energy in a space. This is a practice I’ve gotten to experience and the smell is definitely overwhelming, but in a comforting warm way.

Comments

  1. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausFebruary 14, 2018 at 9:21 AM

    Protestant Christian traditions tend not to be in to the aesthetics of the "lower senses" like smell and taste, though touch may be a hot button topic - good and bad touch. I suspect that's why scent is not something you immediately associate with being a big part of your worship experiences. But imagine the smells of chicken soup simmering and freshly baked bread nearly every Friday night, that are part of my my past and current Jewish experience (well, less chicken-y, more veggy cooking smells now). But are those part of "worship"? Depends how you define worship.

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