Once upon a time, we humans were just wee little multicellular organisms swimming in the primordial ooze.
And do you know what our first sensory interaction with our surroundings was then?
Not vision, no, though that’s a good guess.
We didn’t get our eyespots for a little while….
Not touch either. Remember, we had very limited processing power so early on….
Not taste (this may’ve been a blessing) or even hearing.
The first of our five senses was the power of scent.

From flights of fantasy to scientific frontiers, scent design, like a musical score or dramatic lighting, is a powerful, proven tool to set a scene, tell a story, conjure a memory, enhance an experience, and connect us with our deepest selves — that little primordial animal brain which still drives our most vivid experiences, even (especially) in today’s modern world.

Working with scents for a over decade has given me a body of experience ranging from “olfactory set dressing” for avant-guarde theatre to commercially branded snacks of the future, from luxury body care in designer spas to selfie-stick-wielding unicorns prancing in a cloud of bubblegum.

As a craftsperson I’m able to pivot between fantastical artificial fragrances to farm-to-bottle essential oils with a focus on allergen and sensitivity awareness.

Another delightful challenge of this all too often, well, overlooked field is the wide variety of techniques and technologies for delivering any given aroma. In this way, scent is a kind of lightning in a bottle - ephemeral, elusive, sometimes even fantastically volatile. Working with a diverse array of clients and collaborators has given me an extensive toolkit for tricks of the trade, letting me dial in the settings from intimate to grand, subtly suggestive to unmistakably impactful, visible to invisible.

Years of research and development, experience with manufacturers from around the world, and a specialization in custom blends enables me to nimbly meet the needs of each of my clients with this invisible yet powerful medium.

Selected Scent Design CV:

2018 Caravan Rally 2018 - Explorers’ Guild Troop 001, Oakland, CA to Ashland OR

Guest artist. 24 hour community-building interactive theatre road trip. Olfactory design and production for unicorn and delectable acts.

2018 Terrible Blooms by Melissa Stein - Opening Reception at The Bindery, San Francisco CA

Guest artist. Performed original cicatra-kintsugi (gilding of scars with gold leaf and rosewater) with guests at local public literary event.

2018 - 2019 Bulbs of Spring - Elsewhere Philatelic Society, Oakland and San Francisco CA

Creator, parton, volunteer for annual neighborhood daffodil bulb giveaways. Public space olfactory dressing.

2017 Infernal Motel - Epic Immersive, the Rathskeller Club, San Francisco CA

Olfactory set design and production for site-specific immersive theatre piece.

2017 Experience and Immersive Design - University of California, Berkeley

Guest lecturer - “The Role of Scent in Experiential and Immersive Design”

2016  Deliciously Unexpected – Wasserman Media Group for Pepsico, San Francisco CA

Guest artist and game-runner. Developed olfactory, audio, and flavor pairings for table activation for "Social Palate" technology and food event

2016  Boutique Sensorium – Kulturehaus for Pepsico, Milan Italy

Guest artist, assistant set dresser, perfume designer,  live interactive olfactory performance for 2 day private event at Milan Design Week

2016 One Last Day – The Rathskeller Club, San Francisco CA

Guest artist, olfactory design and live immersive olfactory performance for original interactive sensory play by Justin Oliphant.

2015 The Headlands Gamble – First Person Travel, San Francisco CA

Guest artist, personalized interaction consultant, designer and producer. Original olfactory design and production.

2015 Hinge – Vespertine Circus, Oakland CA

Working closely with director Bunny Holmes and musician Jesse Buddington, I designed and manufactured two original scents: Arch, a heady, sultry forest scent applied in the lobby to establish the hypnotic atmosphere of the Hinge universe, and Wendy-Cat, a spine-tingling, animalistic musk for Wendy, Vespertine's very own nine-foot velveteen tiger (who still sometimes comes out to play). 

2015  The Fallen Cosmos – San Francisco Institute of Possibility, San Francisco CA

Guest artist (“Music of the Cosmos” inspired by Amelia Hamrick) for 600+ participant event. Olfactory design, production, and performance.

2015  Book 2, The Latitude Society for Nonchalance, San Francisco CA

Original design and development for multi-site interactive experience. Set design and production, olfactory design, prop curation. Conception, script writing, creative direction and project management of original audio track, supporting lore and events.

2014  Book 1, The Latitude Society for Nonchalance, San Francisco CA

Production assistant, set and experience design, olfactory set dressing, writing, voice acting, guest artist coordination, intern management, community building.

2012 Vasper Systems, Mountain View CA

Site manager, executive assistant, personal trainer, program developer for biotech firm. Specialized in custom essential oil blends.

2011 - 2012 Montclair Skincare, Oakland CA

Research & development, manufacturing, marketing, S&H, workshop hosting, vending for independent holistic body-care company. Carried by Whole Foods, Claremont Hotel Spa, various boutiques and farmers’ markets througout the San Francisco Bay Area.

Role: Creator, Curator, Lead Narrator

On-Call Storytelling Service

When was the last time someone read you a bedtime story?

Born of insomnia and a fascination with dream-tinkering, the Bedtime Story Hotline offers lovingly narrated short stories for all ages. Each story is carefully selected (or crafted in-house) for its gentle cadence and rich imagery -- in short, optimal dream fodder.
New stories are cycled in periodically with both live and recorded readings.

Next time the bedbugs bite, try calling 469-4-DREAMS.

* * * * * *

Sound Engineer and Original Hold Music: Uriah Findley

Systems: Issac Kelly 

Greeting Narrator: Justin Oliphant

Special thanks to Garland Glessner

Role: Co-Producer, Art Director

Creative opening performance for keynote speech at annual conference.

Engineer, Designer, Co-producer: Issac Kelly

For: Kelly Creative Tech for Elastic

We built a super-suit for a classical ballet dancer so she could dance a live duet with her own movement data using our client’s software.

On top of its diverse, pioneer-spirited technical challenges, I found a lot of personal meaning through the ballerina project.

As a woman in the arts who felt alienated from STEM subjects from grade-school through most of my twenties, it felt like the other side of a mountain to work shoulder-to-shoulder with both artists and engineers to bridge our communication and technical worlds to explore new dance moves that are both technically sound and aesthetically and philosophically benevolent.

As future-ancestors, we managed to conjure up one more supportive example for a generation of girls and young women to hopefully feel more empowered to approach whichever interests they wish, whenever they wish.

All that, plus bringing together some of my favorite creators?
Swoon.

***
My favorite moment — besides getting to test drive the proto-suit that one time — was when we caught a handful of little dancers from the class next-door peeking in, leaving little nose-prints on the glass studio door as they watched our rehearsal.

How wonderful to think they may’ve been inspired by — or, better yet, taken for granted — that glimpse of a traditionally femme role in the seamless (thanks again, Mx. Titus) context of engineering and technology.
STEAM FTW <3

***
Watch Elastic’s mini-documentary of “the ballerina project” here,
Read about choreographer Sarah Cecelia’s innovation in her own words here.

* * *
Costumer: Crystal Titus

Composer: Uriah Findley

Choreography: Sarah Cecilia

Performance Artist: Jaimielyn Duggan

Understudy: Kelsey McFalls

Special thanks to Haley Eshagh and Michal Woroniecki, the awesome team at Elastic, and Planet Labs.

Role: Set Designer

Public design festival highlighting local community identity and urban play.

For: The Living Room Collective
 
We built a community living room on the steps of Oakland's City Hall! 

For the Our City Festival, a group of collaborators spearheaded by Albert Kong formed The Living Room Collective to dream up and bring to life this installation.
I designed and set-dressed this cozy, local-yet-[Westernly]-universal set, complete with a faux fireplace, toy box, family games, and storybook library. In addition to these familiar features of a traditional communal space, the Our City living room featured two walls of framed digital screens to showcase images of festival attendees -- Oakland's very own family portrait wall.

Our team joined forces with the kids of the West Oakland Youth Center who painted a mural on the reverse of the walls to commemorate those lost in our community, who are, now as ever, family. This mural doubled as the family portrait backdrop for the framed digital images.

My favorite parts of this project were seeing our neighbors make themselves comfortable in the space, transforming it from installation to true "third place."  

A mother read her toddler stories from one of the rocking chairs; parents hung out at the counter as their kids shot hoops at a neighboring installation. Later in the afternoon friends pulled up chairs and made themselves at home until they spilled down the steps of City Hall into the iconic Frank Ogawa Plaza , playing board games and carrying on conversations. We even had a late-night Bedtime Story Hotline live reading!

Role: Event Manager, Assistant Creative Director, Volunteer Coordinator, Writer

400 guest event at Children's Fairyland in Oakland

For: the Latitude Society by Nonchalance
 

What do you do when you have a 40' parade dragon collecting dust in storage? You write her a song and throw her a party, of course!

In addition to fabulous musical acts, delicious cocktails, and the rare treat of romping around one of the country's most historic theme parks, my favorite part of this event was how it gave a creative platform to the artistic community -- a larger-than-life symbiotic expression for the large creative group.

A scavenger hunt to find a missing dragon led game-minded guests to play their way through a number of volunteer-driven interactions, including a fisherman fishing for fallen stars, a spice-trading pirate ship, an art stamp window by the EPS, a Spirit Realm Tea House (fashioned by the Honey Tea Truck of Everyhere Logistics), and more. Once the stars were all returned to their proper constellation, the dragon appeared in a cloud of smoke and ringing temple bells to lead the crowd in a parade and dance party. Because dragons, as everyone knows, love to dance.

For less gamish of the crowd, an open world layout allowed for engagement at any speed. Coolly observe the spectacle, cocktail in hand, from the vantage of a treehouse, catch up with old and new friends at the corral, quiet your mind in a guided group meditation, or head straight for the dance floor. Adventures abound for you to choose.

 

Role: Assistant Creative Director, Producer, Writer, Set Designer, Senior Community Manager, Volunteer Coordinator, Olfactory Set Dresser


For: The Latitude Society by Nonchalance

The best write-up I’ve found of what this genre-bending project entailed for the community is this first-person account by Jessica Lachenal.

Another excellent perspective piece can be found by Lydia Laurenson, where Laurenson discusses the challenges and critiques of the Latitude as an experimental commercial endeavor.

Origin Fable:
Created, edited, and audio engineered by Uriah Findley, told and taught by Kat Meler, advised by Kerry Gould, special thanks to Alexei Othenin-Girard, animated by Tomfoolery, book design by Carolee Gilligan Wheeler, programmed by Issac Kelly, wired by Bill Giles, carpentry by Joe Ertl-Reich, Dixie Briggs, and Ian Homes, directed by Jeff Hull, retold, adapted, and retold by the community members of the Latitude Society: https://youtu.be/EAazLmTcmb0

”Like a circle. . . A book must be closed.”

Role: Game Design Consultant, Perfumer

Interactive Circus Performance

Director: Bunny Holmes

For: the Vespertine Circus

Hinge was a magical feat of live gaming, interactive theatre, and classic circus. Along with a crack team of fellow designers, I helped brainstorm ways to knit the traditional theatre experience into a living, breathing show that responded in the moment to audience interactions. 

In addition to game design, I hand-made two very special perfumes designed to invisibly enhance the performance, using scent as one would a musical score or a special effect. Working closely with director Bunny Holmes and musician Jesse Buddington, I designed and manufactured two original scents: Arch, a heady, sultry forest scent applied in the lobby to establish the hypnotic atmosphere of the Hinge universe, and Wendy-Cat, a spine-tingling, animalistic musk for Wendy, Vespertine's very own nine-foot velveteen tiger (who still sometimes comes out to play). 

Role: Assistant Creative Director, Event Manager, Volunteer Coordinator, Game Runner, Writer

For: The Latitude Society by Nonchalance

Annual 50+ participant retreat for three days in Mendocino, CA.

Following the European Outdoor Education Model, particularly Czech experience design and outdoor classroom design, this immersive retreat was crafted to balance physical, philosophical, reflective, and joyful arcs to send the community of guests back out into the world feeling energized, inspired, enabled, and bonded for years to come.

Since 2015, various alumni of these weekends, along with fellow alumni of Books 1 and 2, have gone on to independently form their own splinter groups to design and produce new, more inclusive, self-sustaining traditions of their own. 

Role: Production Designer, Costuming

Music Video

Director: Alex Winter

Artist: Volary

Blackbird Fly was a true labor of love.

A clear vision was supported by a careful color palette and narrative motifs like feathers, light and shadow.

For the set, I painted the bedroom walls an airy blue to foreshadow the outdoor scenes to come, and sourced table dressings for the tea party shots.

On the costume front, finishing pieces like ribbons, brooches, and paper masks were handmade to tie everyone's looks together. The Blackbird character was given an otherworldly edge by gold leaf tattoos and a fringed silhouette to match the lead singer. Custom skirts and a pair of wings were hand-sewn from a mixture of vintage gowns, hand-beading, feathers and chiffon fringe to catch the wind and light, letting the environment itself become one of the characters.