ABSTRACT
Futurism provides many more examples: texts that refer to smell, or directly address the sense of smell in performances, artists’ books, and even toys with an aromatic dimension. This chapter deals with concrete Futurist case studies, and presents a more general debate on sensory and olfactory reconstructions. On the eve of World War I, Carlo Carrá published ‘The Painting of Sounds, Noises and Smells’ encompassing three senses: sight, hearing and olfaction. It should be noted in passing that the Futurists make a clear distinction between sounds and noise, noise being classified as chaotic sound. Since Futurists tried to merge art and daily life, it comes as no surprise that Carra involves all of the institutions that played a pivotal role in society. More interestingly, the artist presents the relation between painting and music as completely obvious.
