LITERAL : Summer Fruit
The scent from Canterbury’s greengrocers extends into the street as warm summer temperatures help volatilise the aromas of locally grown red fruits. Local farms produce juicy red strawberries whose smell combines with other seasonal crops. Individual scents perceived outdoors combine inside to form a unique “interior greengrocers’ shop” fragrance. The characteristic aroma of a strawberry is the result of about a dozen different aroma compounds. A ripe strawberry’s smell, at 50 milligrams per kilo, lies far above the perceptible odour threshold value in air. The installation includes the classic summer fruit of Kent as a natural, local scent.
Lyrical : history
A city resident exclaimed “Canterbury smells of history!” Globally, place-specific cultural histories have very different aroma associations depending on local foods, customs and rituals. Here, with materials collected in local churches and sites of pilgrim resting places we extracted and created an abstract scent of the city. Tar-coated wood, an old printed text, incense, candles and prayer cushions together form our interpretation of the “history” of Canterbury. The installation includes a complex composite natural, local scent.