Reconsidering the Sensory Hierarchy

             In her essay, The Mediated Sensorium, Caroline A. Jones discusses the apparent hierarchy which has existed among the senses.  With ocularity dominating the modern period, Jones claims that other senses often were not tended to in the development of artistic creations as well as in our overall understanding of the world.  Relying on sight most heavily, the other senses are generally considered supplementary to ocularity and, according to Jones, “the hierarchies placing sight at the top of our sensory aristocracy are… not neural imperatives” (11).  In her section entitled "Olfactivism," Jones explains the curious ways which modernism has consigned smell to the position of the abject (12).  Constantly looking for ways to freshen the air and deodorize ourselves and others, it seems that either no smell or artificial smell are somehow preferable to scents that are contextually natural. 

            As a means of broaching this subject, Jones discusses artist Sissel Tolaas’s attempt to create a language to appropriately tend to the nuances of olfaction.  Quoting “Scent Systems,” a London parfumier, Jones writes “[Tolaas] claims [that] no existing language – she speaks nine – describes smells accurately.  The terminology currently used to describe fragrances, sweet, spicy, etc., is limited and generally void of emotion.  Therefore, she is developing a new language that attempts to describe “smell and smelling” in a logical and consistent manner” (12).  Tolaas’s need, then, to create a language which adequately describes smell, seems to stem from this sensory hierarchy which neglects, if not actually attempts to eradicate, graphic depictions of smell.  For Tolaas, language seems to represent a means of understanding the world as it provides a path to comprehending lived experience in a more olfactory manner.

The idea that perspective can be garnered through the construction and use of language is essential to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of language.  Working together at Yale University, Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf developed a theory of language which suggested the interrelatedness of language and culture.  According to this hypothesis, the structure of a language is often responsible for how a speaker thinks and relates to their world.  As the concept of eye/I seems to be particularly important to Jones’s hierarchy, this provides a clear example of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.  The very existence of the word “I” in most languages allows speakers to conceptualize themselves in a particularly subjective, if no ego-centric, manner.  Without “I,” we may not visualize ourselves as unique entities, capable of differing and unique experiences.  Since our language is structured in such a way that we can imagine ourselves as subjects, as an “I” clearly differentiated from a “you,” we act accordingly.  This framework may augment our objectification of elements or our environment as well as promote certain self-serving tendencies that determine our interaction with others and our world.

Greatly in line with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Tolaas’s new olfactory language attempts to reshape the ways in which we interact with our environment.  By creating new words to describe smells, we may not only be able to be more nuanced in our understanding of olfaction but we may also begin to understand smell in such a way that it is no longer relegated to the position of the grotesque.  If language provided a different means of understanding smells, we may no longer feel the need to deodorize, as our very conception of olfaction would shift along with our ability to articulate and conceptualize the sense.