In late September, 3E hosted 20 participants for a residency entitled “Redolence and Resonance.” The 3-day workshop was organized around the work of Mathew Arthur (University of British Columbia; http://mathewarthur.com/work/) on “smellworlds”: cultural and experiential mappings of scent. Mathew supplements his studies with scent-based practices, such as the production of perfumes and essential oils through distillation as well as various forms of fermentation. Participants produced their own perfumes from a library of essential oils donated by Mathew. A guided walk in the forest with Dany Bigras, a local collaborator with an encyclopedic knowledge of the Upper Laurentians ecosystem, provided local ingredients for distillation into essential oils using what is now the 3E distiller. A philosophical reading group focused on the intersensory participations of smell, in particular its connection to proprioception, as well as its relation to memory and spatiality. Participants brought vinegars that they had produced at home in advance to enliven the collectively prepared evening meals.
