Students in the University of New Mexico’s Confluence Interdisciplinary MFA took an Art & Ecology course with Christy Gast and Camila Marambio, who teach collaboratively as part of Ensayos, during the fall of 2022. The course focused on peatland conservation, which is the foundation of Ensayo #6. Students learned about peatland ecology through a field trip to Addison Bog in Glastonbury, CT, and created fragrances inspired by Ensayos’ Smellscape project for Turba Tol Hol Hol Tol, the Chilean pavilion at the 2022 Venice Biennale. During the course, we created hydrolates of swamp cabbage, white pine and hemlock in a copper alembic. For their final project, students collaboratively responded to a fragrance design brief.
Fragrance Brief
Create a “gift of scent” that tells the story of a bog, wetland or ecosystem of your choosing–a place that is accessible to you, that you feel drawn to, that you already care for or you want to know more about and share. Consider permissions, protocols and land acknowledgments specific to your “place”.
Your “gift of scent” can take any form as long as it can be sent in the mail. Your audience will be one other student in the course. Your gift should include a postcard-sized text with instructions or a brief statement about the piece. Include the title, materials and something about the process if that adds to the story. It can be a multiple of two with an artist’s proof.
Results
On Sept. 10 we met as a group on Zoom for the unboxing. The students prepared the collective post in PDF format below, which documents their places, processes, the unboxing and their thank you notes.
Gift-of-Scent-Ensayos-Blog-Post-