LOVE POTION NO. 9
Love Potion No. 9 was a one night scented event, for singles who really wanted to meet someone, and was a collaboration between Hubby and the Institute for Art and Olfaction. The main image and poster for the project is by Austin Young. All the photos below are by Steven Rimlinger, Barbara Gillespie and Saskia Wilson-Brown. I praise them all! Special thanks goes out to my mom, Steven Rimlinger, Randi Steinberger, Juliane Lee, Maxwell Williams, Bolyn Hubby, Savannah Kingsley Smith - you all made this event work to its good mojo best! And the band really amped up the goodness in everyone: Tommy Jordan, Richard (Rood Dog) Barnes, Harlan Steinberger and Jelani Felix - they called themselves NUDO.
*Note to you: We would consider replaying this event if anyone would like to host it. It worked its magic, so we are excited to share that experience again. Please inquire.
HOW IT WORKED
Each person arrived at the event, and was assigned a pseudonym, a one-note scent unique to them (based on their profile form), an empty bottle for their personal formula, and a participation form, upon which they rated their interactions on our extra-special, pretend-patented Romantic and Sexual Potential Scale (RaSPS).
During the introductions part of the night, participants were randomly assigned interactions with the other attendees, spending a specified time period with one another – and utilized our impromptu ice-breaker questions during each interaction. After each encounter, everyone rotated.
The interactions were rated one through five by each participant – with 1 for ok and 5 for wow! The score determined the amount of aromatic material in each participant’s personal formula. Thus, more positive interactions resulted in a bigger impact on the finished personal formula. As an example, for every point Ms. Lilac scored to the interaction with Mr. Clove, the emcees added a drop of clove to Ms Lilac’s personal formula. If Mr. Myrrh assigned 4 points to Mr. Cedar, four drops of cedar were added to Mr. Myrrh’s formula.
At the end of the speed round, we hosted a happy hour with alluring refreshments, group activities, and bonding exercises — all hosted by emcee Bettina Hubby. The participants mixed further with games provided, and then guided by friends at the IAO each whipped up their own individual formulas. Each participant left with their own small bottle of scent, containing an aromatic mixture based entirely on the quantity and perceived quality of their interactions. Envelopes were sent out in the following days to connect personal matches (deemed to be mutual ratings of 5).
We invited singles to be prepared to participate in a fulfilling and thought-provoking olfactory art project. Although we made every effort to help them find the love of their life, it could be that he or she lives in Shanghai, or that she or he didn’t hear about this! We know – however – that everyone had a fun time, as we systematically removed as much ‘awkward’ as we could from the experience.
COLLABORATORS
Saskia Wilson-Brown is the founder and director of The Institute for Art and Olfaction, which she started in 2012 as an experimental arts organization devoted to practices that incorporate scent.
Austin Young is a Pop-Culture Architect, photographer and trans media artist. Young has been documenting pop, sub, and trans culture since 1985 through portraiture. Young’s video works play with pop-culture and camp, celebrity, gender and identity. Young is also co-founder of Fallen Fruit, an art collective who use fruit as a common denominator to change the way you think about the world. www.austinyoung.com
Steven Rimlinger is a photographer, editor and filmmaker. Steven’s practice is as diverse as his interests. His company – Square Footage – provides high quality media for marketing residential and commercial property. www.squareftage.com
Barbara Gillespie is Bettina Hubby’s most consistent collaborator. She has worked with her daughter in countless ways: From knitting dozens of table-top traffic cones to coming up with aphrodisiacal drink recipes.
A NOTE ABOUT GENDER
Participants could be gay, straight or bi; Participants could be female, male, cis/trans; We adjusted the groups based on the number of people who filled out our profile form, and the bent of their love. Depending on interest, we would have added a group that is gay-only, and we may add a secondary event in the future, but in this instance most of the participants were straight.
