In a previous post I said that creation in perfumery is the perfect union between Order & Randomness. For this purpose I have designed several games around the ingredients of the perfume organ to train the mind to find new gates inside the maze of scents. Every known notion of perfumery must be challenged. The best way to do it, in order to celebrate the New Year's Eve 2011-2012, is in Monte Carlo or Monaco. One of the games I conceived is a mixture between cards, rummy and Mahjong with 2 versions: symbols and bottles. Because the number of scent ingredients is greater than the number of the cards in a normal deck or the sets of tiles in Mahjong, I use the 32 major categories of odors to define the set. It is usually represented by the most used molecules. In fact, it is a matching game similar to canasta and can be played by 2 or 4 perfumers in 2 teams. It has almost the same rules as canasta (the Mahjong version is more complicated but gives better and elegant results), just the symbols are imported from perfume design. You receive a number of cards / tiles, then you draw and discard them until they complete a hand, you attempt to make melds and go out by playing all cards / tiles. You can extract a set or make a meld once you create an accord from what is written on the cards, keeping in mind that you play at the same time a card game and you generate accords. The double meaning or the two "voices" are crucial in perfume design and it is of course related to the ability of the brain to function in 2 modes like the 2 hands when playing piano. So, one has to pay attention to what is written on the cards and play the game like any other society game in a select club where Scent is the Order. In my game, there are 136 cards (like the tiles in Mahjong some time it goes up to 144) and each card has also a value, related to the amount, but not in a tight way. Every time you change the relative concentration degree you can win points (if you increase it) or lose points (if you dilute it). There are also 2 dices which tells you how to play (up, down or free will) with the concentrations assigned to each card like in canasta. There is also the version with one single dice of a special type (two pyramids joined at their bases) like the one discovered in an Egyptian tomb. For instance, if you planned to get "rid" of Karanal in an accord making a meld, the sudden value given by the 2 dices can tell you how the accord should be played in the game (I must use it as a dominant note, I must use it as a minor note, I can use it as I wish). It strictly depends on how you build the accords to make melds (and win points) or discard the molecules to the other person. Of course, in the end if you make something more complex than a monothematic accord or a variation around a monotheme, you win additional points. From the accords you imagined, you have the right to chose 2 for an olfactory evaluation which can be easily made with pipettes. All the accords are obviously written in a notebook. Of course, this is only a brief apperçu because the game is more complex and funny like the bubbles of the champagne to celebrate the entrance in the New Year's order. There is also the version when the cards/tiles are replaced with small vials and they are placed like the tiles in Mahjong. Here, you do not generate accords from memory (your idea about what an ingredient can be) but you generate them instantly in a more impulsive way. The most important thing in perfume design is to play because scent ingredients and rules can change. In other words the ability to improvise and invent without being bound to notions like "chypre" or "cologne".
Cards, tiles, dices and perfumes make a very special odor combination and it is a more entertaining way to generate a constant order & scents. Very close to the famous Casino in Monaco, where I spent several summers, lies the former garden of perfumes where once, meaning more than one century ago (in the 1880's) violets and many other scented plants were cultivated for the fragrance industry. That's how I got the idea that Randomness and Order can make a good essence in a bottle.
In the picture, you have an antique Mahjong set which inspired me.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
