Scratch and Sniff Proust
Contact
Virginia C Barry | vcbarry@gmail.com
Heather Hancock | heather.hancock@gmail.co
Scratch and Sniff Proust
A collaboration with psychiatrist Dr. Virginia Barry to develop illustrations for a book addressing the neuroscience of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. Dr. Barry is specifically interested in the so-called “Proust phenomenon” in which intense, visceral memories are evoked by scents. Dr Barry writes an accessible overview of the neuroscience behind consciousness, attention, memory, and sensation, focusing on Proust’s understanding of olfaction in triggering memory. She deftly weaves sections of Proust’s writing along with clinical anecdotes from her practice to illustrate these complex processes.
Author Dr. Barry writes:
Memories elicited by smell are imbued with a kind of visceral and emotional essence that sets them apart from memories called up by words or images alone. I am transported when I bury my nose in a bunch of freshly cut basil; whereas seeing a recipe for Insalata Caprese generates a grocery list. Another parched day of drought makes me wish for rain, but the smell of the earth–the petrichor–after that first rain makes me want to dance and fills me with optimism. The memories evoked by fragrances are rarely bland or colorless; they are drenched in emotion.
Although he didn’t have neuroscience to illuminate why olfaction is so emotionally evocative, Marcel Proust understood the power of scent to unleash ancient, long forgotten memories that form the foundation of our emotional lives. As the title of his great work tells us, In Search of Lost Time (also translated from the French as The Remembrance of Things Past) is concerned with these memories and the stamp they place on the experience of the present. Scratch and Sniff Proust began as a wisp of a joke and has evolved into something much more–part neuroscience, part art, part psychoanalysis.
A consistent compositional structure was developed for the glass art to connect with both literal objects referred to in each target quotation and the larger conceptual themes of the constructive nature of memory, the role of language in accessing memory and the neuroscience of signaling and transmission. Literal imagery is captured in gestural, instagram-style photographs. Each literal image has an associated scent.
Dr. Barry writes:
I chose Heather as a collaborator given her integration of her visual art practice with a background in applied neurosciences. Her work with glass is about visual experience; she explores the many properties of glass to infuse spaces with meaning and interest, offering viewers a moment soon gone, yet filled with radiance. This approach is consistent with Proust’s extensive contemplation about light and shadow, reflections and contrasts. Heather’s art pieces offer visual interpretations for each section of the book, forming another connection with Proust’s inner world.
Contact
Virginia C Barry | vcbarry@gmail.com
Heather Hancock | heather.hancock@gmail.co
A collaboration with psychiatrist Dr. Virginia Barry to develop illustrations for a book addressing the neuroscience of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. Dr. Barry is specifically interested in the so-called “Proust phenomenon” in which intense, visceral memories are evoked by scents. Dr Barry writes an accessible overview of the neuroscience behind consciousness, attention, memory, and sensation, focusing on Proust’s understanding of olfaction in triggering memory. She deftly weaves sections of Proust’s writing along with clinical anecdotes from her practice to illustrate these complex processes.
Author Dr. Barry writes:
Memories elicited by smell are imbued with a kind of visceral and emotional essence that sets them apart from memories called up by words or images alone. I am transported when I bury my nose in a bunch of freshly cut basil; whereas seeing a recipe for Insalata Caprese generates a grocery list. Another parched day of drought makes me wish for rain, but the smell of the earth–the petrichor–after that first rain makes me want to dance and fills me with optimism. The memories evoked by fragrances are rarely bland or colorless; they are drenched in emotion.
Although he didn’t have neuroscience to illuminate why olfaction is so emotionally evocative, Marcel Proust understood the power of scent to unleash ancient, long forgotten memories that form the foundation of our emotional lives. As the title of his great work tells us, In Search of Lost Time (also translated from the French as The Remembrance of Things Past) is concerned with these memories and the stamp they place on the experience of the present. Scratch and Sniff Proust began as a wisp of a joke and has evolved into something much more–part neuroscience, part art, part psychoanalysis.
A consistent compositional structure was developed for the glass art to connect with both literal objects referred to in each target quotation and the larger conceptual themes of the constructive nature of memory, the role of language in accessing memory and the neuroscience of signaling and transmission. Literal imagery is captured in gestural, instagram-style photographs. Each literal image has an associated scent.
Dr. Barry writes:
I chose Heather as a collaborator given her integration of her visual art practice with a background in applied neurosciences. Her work with glass is about visual experience; she explores the many properties of glass to infuse spaces with meaning and interest, offering viewers a moment soon gone, yet filled with radiance. This approach is consistent with Proust’s extensive contemplation about light and shadow, reflections and contrasts. Heather’s art pieces offer visual interpretations for each section of the book, forming another connection with Proust’s inner world.
Contact
Virginia C Barry | vcbarry@gmail.com
Heather Hancock | heather.hancock@gmail.co
A collaboration with psychiatrist Dr. Virginia Barry to develop illustrations for a book addressing the neuroscience of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. Dr. Barry is specifically interested in the so-called “Proust phenomenon” in which intense, visceral memories are evoked by scents. Dr Barry writes an accessible overview of the neuroscience behind consciousness, attention, memory, and sensation, focusing on Proust’s understanding of olfaction in triggering memory. She deftly weaves sections of Proust’s writing along with clinical anecdotes from her practice to illustrate these complex processes.
Scratch and Sniff Proust
Making Sense of Scents and Sentiments