My project, “Scentimentality” aims to create an intimate experience, recognizing the ways in which scent triggers certain aspects of memory and nostalgia, taking a closer look at how malleable and changeable scent memory is over time. I have always been an incredibly nostalgic and sentimental person. For me, two of the most significant senses that I remember about a loved one is through the sense of sound and the sense of smell. Working off of this notion, “Scentimentality” quickly developed into my idea of creating a collection of five handcrafted candles using a combination of unique personalized scents, vessels and characteristics dedicated specifically to my loved ones.

While my project’s main focus is based around scent memory, the sense of sound, specifically in relation to music, is an unforgettable part of the memories I hold of my family members as well. To honor the essence of my loved ones, I spent time curating personalized playlists of songs that embody and remind me of them. 

My initial research was driven by the psychological factors behind our sense of smell and how they correlate with memory and nostalgia. I learned that many memories, specifically childhood memories, are not necessarily you remembering that exact smell from that one moment, but rather, that scent memory consists of all of the recollections you have curated over the years, and building a new memory off of those different recollections. In order to grasp a better understanding about the prominent ways scent plays a role in the memory of others, I sent out a public google form asking, “if you could bottle up any scent what would it be?” This served as a way for me to get an intel on others’ recollection of scents which I then developed into an Associative Memory Network activity which helps to illustrate one’s own concepts of memory. 

No matter if it is about a person, place, time, or feeling, “Scentimentality” is meant to serve as a capsule that aims to help better understand how our memories correlate with one another through recalling moments based around our sense of smell.