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May 6, 2017 - Comments Off on 2017: ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS

2017: ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS

BERLIN - MAY 7, 2017 Guests and nominees congregated to witness the fourth annual Art and Olfaction Awards at the Silent Green Kulturquartier—a former crematorium built in 1911 revitalized as an arts venue—in Berlin, Germany on the evening of Saturday, May 6, 2017.

SEE PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT HERE

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April 17, 2017 - Comments Off on Let’s talk about judging bias

Let’s talk about judging bias

We're a few weeks away from the 4th annual Art and Olfaction Awards, and now feels like a great time to post about one challenge we face as an organization: The fairness of our judging process.

In a perfect world, we would identify and persuade 28 people who both have excellent noses AND zero existing relationships in the industry to spend months of their time assessing the submissions for nothing more than an enthusiastic thank you.

However, our world is not quite perfect, and people who understand perfume tend to... well... work in the perfume industry. In other words, pre-existing relationships are a given: There is no reasonable way to avoid them, short of coralling a pack of robots to evaluate the submissions (and even that might create some issues along the way).

We are, however, very aware of a relationship's potential to bias the awards. Although every mechanism has potential flaws (and every year brings us a new exception to what we thought was a hard rule), we do our very, very best to make the awards as fair as possible. Here's how!

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April 5, 2017 - Comments Off on PICKING UP THE SCENT

PICKING UP THE SCENT

Every year, we commission a writer to compose some lines on what scent means to them. This year, we invited Los Angeles-based writer Maxwell Williams to take on the task. What follows are Maxwell's musings on the value, the subjectivity and the ultimate beauty of smelling.

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March 29, 2017 - Comments Off on 2017 FINALIST ANNOUNCEMENT: VIDEO

2017 FINALIST ANNOUNCEMENT: VIDEO

On March 23 2017, Luca Turin, Adam Eastwood, Franco Wright, Helder Suffenplan and Antonio Gardoni joined Saskia WIlson-Brown to announce the finalists for the fourth annual Art and Olfaction Awards at Esxence in Milan.

Watch the video of the announcement, below.

 

March 23, 2017 - Comments Off on ANNOUNCING THE 2017 FINALISTS

ANNOUNCING THE 2017 FINALISTS

We are thrilled to announce the finalists of the 4th annual Art and Olfaction Awards.

Awarded to just four perfumes and one experimental scent project a year, The Art and Olfaction Awards are designed to raise public interest and awareness around new developments in independent perfumery.

The Awards, established in 2014 by the Institute for Art and Olfaction, are given to outstanding creators in the categories of independent, artisan, and experimental perfume from across the globe, chosen for perfumes released in 2016.

On March 23, 1pm CET we announced the finalists with the help of some of our friends and judges at Esxence, in Milan. Hailing from 12 countries and four continents, 2017's finalists fully represent the diversity of our global independent, artisan and experimental perfume community.

MEET THE FINALISTS HERE

 

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March 15, 2017 - Comments Off on March 23: Shortlist Announcement

March 23: Shortlist Announcement

On March 23 at 1pm (CET) we will announce the shortlisted perfumes and experimental projects with scent for the fourth annual Art and Olfaction Awards in a special presentation at Esxence, in Milan. The announcement will be made by some of our partners and judges: Luca Turin, Helder Suffenplan, Adam Eastwood and Franco Wright, Antonio Gardoni, Christophe Laudamiel and Saskia Wilson-Brown.

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February 3, 2017 - Comments Off on Orange

Orange

Director Aaron Weldon took some time last month to make a short promotional video for the Art and Olfaction Awards - with a thematic focus on the transportive power of scent.

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December 29, 2016 - Comments Off on Photos: Judging

Photos: Judging

Cliché: A picture is worth a thousand words.

Truth: It's devilishly difficult to describe a process or an experience in cold prose (not to mention the fact that it would make for a dreadfully boring read). We'll rely on the visual.

What follows are a few snapshots from some of the judging sessions that have taken place at the IAO, so far.

These are still early days: We'll be in the process of judging the submissions for the next few months. But we'll be sure to add updates - as they trickle in - here on our 'news' page.

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