Matthew Mckeag
@matthewmckeag
Matthew Mckeag
The Columbia professor Jonathan Crary argues that today’s representational culture results from a nineteenth-century shift away from defining “perception” as “presence” and toward “attention.” Rather than recognizing our experience as immersive, our discourse and technologies evolved to emphasize the filtering out of stimuli in favor of some target
... See moreAs Dr. Gabor Maté says, “the loss of self is the essence of trauma”.
When we smell, we remember. In fact, research has shown that the memories associated with smell are the most powerful, vivid, and emotional of all our recollections.
Maria Konnikova • Mastermind
Experts tell us that smell is the most faithful of all the senses in terms of memory. The smells of one’s childhood still remain within. It is incredible how a simple scent on a street or in a room can bring you back years to an experience you had long forgotten.
John O'Donohue • Anam Cara: 25th Anniversary Edition
With light, you can make some pathetic attempt to preserve it, to take a picture of it. Or like Monet you can paint a cathedral in various hours of the day. He knew what he was doing—the cathedral was only a ruse, a trap for capturing the rays of light. But with smells, no such tricks are available to us, there is no film or recording device, no su
... See moreGeorgi Gospodinov • Time Shelter
This is where smell truly becomes an issue for the forces of consumerism. You can certainly experience strong whiffs of an odor, but the sensation trends toward being ambient, not targeted.
If anything, I see smelling as a radical act. The more we refocus on our less commodifiable sensations, the more we dethrone the institutionalized primacy of audiovisual spectacle.
why you should be smelling more things
open.substack.com
björk said that trying to communicate through talking feels like trying to put the ocean through a straw