Fragrance Sculptor & Designer Kaja Solgaard Dahl
Tapputi and the Sea
The ability to smell, also known as olfaction, plays an essential role in our state of mind, emotions and memory, and can greatly affect our social and environmental interactions. Studies have indicated that human interactions with various odours produce immediate changes in our physiological parameters such as blood pressure, pupil dilation, muscle tension and brain activity. Humans detect smells by breathing in air that contains odour molecules. A single smell, for example a whiff of fresh coffee, is composed of a number of different molecules and we can identify at least 10,000 distinct odorants such as this. The way in which we perceive different smells influences our growth trajectory and facilitates our brain’s adaptation to our environment.
Olfaction is closely connected with our memory. Cast your mind back to a past vacation on the beach, a walk in the mountains or when the summer rain began falling in your garden and, often, you will not only be struck with the images that you experienced but also with the odours. When encountering these odours in later life, they can bring back the memories that were originally associated with them.
After the Industrial Revolution and during the rise of Modernism in design, Western society developed a concern for clean spaces and the deodorised body. Natural odours were already recognised as a negative element and inadequate hygiene. People began to focus their attention on synthetic fragrances, causing natural odours to be camouflaged with aromas considered to be more socially acceptable. This shift became evident in the cosmetics industry, which developed a range of fragrances based around the most popular scent notes, such as floral, citrus and woody.
Despite the significant influence that olfaction has on human emotions, behaviour and our connection with the environment, designers and artists rarely address this particular sense in their work. Instead, they often choose to focus on designs that concentrate on vision or audition. Designer Kaja Solegaard Dahl, questioning the lack of variety in the perfume industry, began to develop sensory objects that interact with peoples’ sense of smell. The Norwegian designer explores our perception of natural odours and demonstrates that, through olfactory design, it is possible to generate emotions and connect people to nature.
Tapputi and the Sea
Tapputi and the Sea
Atelier Kaja Dahl
Since the beginning of Kaja Solgaard Dahl's career, the designer intended to create sensory objects that would stimulate the perception of its users. However, like many design students, Dahl was primarily concerned with the physical execution of her projects and, during her masters studies at Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL), the role of fragrance was an elemental part of her product design and sculptural creations.
Dahl’s graduation project Tapputi and the Sea is the beautiful encounter between natural marine sponge, heat, skin, texture and fragrance. The name of the sensorial design was inspired by Tapputi-Belatekallim, the first recorded chemist and perfume maker cited in a cuneiform tablet from Babylonian Mesopotamia dated to around 1200 BC.
Tapputi and the Sea - Cape Town Edition
Tapputi and the Sea - Cape Town Edition
Created for the 22nd annual Design Indaba Conference in 2017, in collaboration with natural perfumer Agata Karolina by House of Gozdawa, Tapputi and the Sea - Cape Town Edition is a limited edition of perfume vessels that contain a Capetonian-inspired scent. With Scandinavian vision, Dahl explored the land in Cape Town and collected samples of soil, dried fynbos, wood, stone and seaweed to experiment with. As South Africa boasts an incredible variety of natural materials, the designer was able to distil a recognisable fragrance from the country’s landscape.
Tapputi and the Sea - Cape Town Edition
“This body of scent was created with Cape Town as it’s muse, moving between wet and dry landscapes, from the sea to the land. The air passes over the dark depths of the ocean, washing over the shore and beaches into the fynbos covered mountains. Notes of kelp emerge from its depths and move into the heat of burnt wood, followed by the warm sweetness of silver-bush everlasting flowers, Namibian myrrh, jasmine and fennel. This scent takes you through the harmony of land and sea, the very harmony that connects the land and its ever surrounding ocean in Cape Town.”
Tapputi and the Sea - Cape Town Edition