Osmic Resonance is a crossmodal perfumery, created by the artist, Dr Jo Burzynska. Jo creates wearable art perfumes inspired by the blending of the senses, and connections to place and memory. These are often released with crossmodally tuned sound components that interact with and enhance the perception of different elements of the fragrances. Jo creates, blends, bottles and packages the label’s intriguing limited release perfumes in Ōtautahi Christchurch, New Zealand. Eau Tautahi was its first limited release in 2022. It will release its first suite of perfumes, The Frequency Range in 2023.
The perfumier
Dr Jo Burzynska is a multimedia artist with a creative practice based in the nonvisual senses and a background in wine. Much of her work is multisensory, regularly combining sound, taste, touch, and the scents she blends and often distills herself. For many years she pursued parallel careers as a sound artist and professional wine writer and judge – which includes time as Wine Editor in the NZ Herald’s Viva magazine. After an induction in artistic perfumerie during a residency at the Institute for Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles in 2016, Jo has completed further training and increasingly incorporated her own olfactory compositions into her artwork. She is actively engaged in research into sensory interactions and their creative application, the focus of her recent PhD and forthcoming book in the Routledge Sensory Studies series.
The perfumes
THE FREQUENCY RANGE
3 x 10ml Eau de Parfum
Limited edition trio of unisex fine fragrances tuned to the resonances between the notes of perfume and the pitches of music. Wear each on its own or layer together in harmonious combinations.
High Pass – fast tempo, bright and briny marine-citrus top note accord with the treble turned up
Heart Beats – pulsing sichuan pepper over soft undertones of manuka, myrhh, rose and frangipani
20Hz – earthy bass drone with full-timbred woody notes and a leitmotif of smoke
Perfume is often conceptualised as having top, middle (heart) and base notes. The top notes are the lightest molecules that dissipate the quickest, while the base notes are heavier and linger the longest. In The Frequency Range, the “notes” of this triptych of perfumes have been composed into three more complex scents representing the the top, middle and base notes. This draws on contemporary research into crossmodal correspondences, associations between sensory experiences in different modalities. Accompanying soundscapes have been created for each of the three perfumes to intensify sensory perceptions.
The Frequency Range connects fundamental and cultural vibrations between the senses. Challenging the traditional Western notion of the divided sensorium, the perfumes tune into three areas on a spectrum that resonate across multiple senses and cultures of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Eau Tautahi
Eau de Parfum
Distilling the essence of the garden city, the scents of Eau Tautahi have been blended to create a wearable olfactory impression of Ōtautahi, both urban and botanical. This is the inaugural limited release from Dr Jo Burzynska’s new Osmic Resonance perfume label, an extension of her olfactory arts practice, which makes connections between the senses, people and place, culture and nature. Eau Tautahi emerged from Jo’s recent Sensuous Psychogeography art project, based around multiple walks through the city of Ōtautahi Christchurch guided by the non-visual senses. What these walks disclosed informed the multisensory artworks of her exhibition, What Might We Find When We Stop Looking? (Christchurch Arts Centre, May 2022). The olfactory compositions of this exhibition were reblended as this unisex fragrance. It is released with an accompanying soundscape created from walks around the city that inspired and interact with the perfume.
The perfume
Top notes of the Ōtakaro Avon River – watery freshness, greenery and wild herbs.
Heart notes of the street – construction dust, tarmac, roasting coffee.
Base notes of gardens and bush – earth, wood, mingling of native and introduced plants.
The soundscape
A QR code on the perfume’s box gives you access to a sonic composition, Ōtautahi Drifting, a soundscape created from the walks around Christchurch that both inspired the scents of the perfume and interact with it.
To purchase the perfumes, contact Jo.