Bryangohey

i think one of the interesting parts about how i've observed niche fragrance become popular here is how innately tied it's been to the visuality of fragrantica layouts. i think between toskovat-posting and scent of the day event posters we're reaching a critical mass wherein the distinct dimensionality of fragrantica's layout is itself becoming a parallel language to the ethereal and hyper-dimensional sensorial aspect of perfume itself. while a number of my perfumer friends swear off fragrantica in favor of parfumo and other cataloguing sites that privilege less qualitative and definitive descriptions of perfumes, i would challenge the current generation of fragrantica prosumers to think of the website's layout like a visual artist might think of a didactic or a show catalouge. while of course perfumers have little control over how their work is represented (personally, i think adding a community edit feature to fragrantica and allowing independent perfumers to upload their own scents with unique note breakdowns would be ideal), i find the times in which i really value fragrantica as a database and creative resource is when the specific viscera of a perfume lost in translation actually creates something different from or beyond the sum of its olfactory parts. i love the sort of serene visual minimalism of a fragrantica layout as internet artifact on its own, and oftentimes feel that people are drawn to how these representations function within the two-dimensional screen enviroment irrespective of the perfume they are made in reference to. i think the way forward in this current moment is not to withdraw from this function, but to apply the memetic sampling culture of the internet even further towards remixing, editing, and building upon this format. i love seeing girls photoshop their own note breakdowns, edit in their own words, play with the icon arrangement, etc – and think this rigid form of organization is most beneficial to us as posters and creative netizens when it is destroyed. this is merely to say i think the superflat language of fragrantica spreads is inseparable from the current niche perfume renaissance, and while i understand artist concerns about their work being oversimplified or incorrectly represented, i am cautiously optimistic about what this implies for how people choose to communicate about scent online.