
The Amygdala acts as the filter for memories and the Hippocampus expedites memories to the appropriate areas of the brain for long term storage. The Olfactory Cortex identifies scents. In her dissertation, Kriistina Kompus found that there were different neurological pathways to relate smells and memories. Her research pointed that the memory did not necessarily have to be traumatic. She also gathered data that the brain relates memory and smell in milliseconds through MRI’s and Electroencephalography. But how can an artist use this to their advantage?
There have been many attempts to exploit the limbic system for advertising purposes. According to Discovery Health, “…smells would not trigger memories if it weren't for conditioned responses.” Bluntly, in order to remember an image, we have to associate an image with either a distinct smell that people can relate to; Such as a child remembers their first pool experience upon smelling chlorine. This is hit or miss. What kind of smells would be produced for specific images? …and if the scents were to work, would the ethos have a negative reaction to the image?
In recent advertising campaigns, Got Milk had a specialized strip scented with freshly baked cookies made to install in buses around a city. Their intention was for their target ethos to relate freshly baked cookies to purchasing more milk. The campaign was a success as well as a failure. The target ethos were divided into those who thought the ads were “corporate manipulation” and those who didn’t relate the smell of cookies to milk. What can we gather from these examples? We have to first analyze where we would have our artwork. Obviously, the marketing perspective is hit or miss. But what if we presented our art in a gallery? Our chances to create a positive memory from our art with smell would go up exponentially.
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