Finding Middle C
Jayne McSwiney
Finding Middle C,
acrylic, tv, cgi video animation, scent paper strips, moss, salt water, kangaroo poo, devils apple, eucalyptus, pittosporum, variable, 2015.
Finding Middle C is a research-based project blending music, scent, and sensory perception, drawing inspiration from John Cage and Alexander Scriabin’s color-coded compositions. The work explores the idea of mapping scents to musical notes on the C major scale, beginning with the search for the perfect scent to represent Middle C.
The project unfolds in two parts:
Search, Gather, Distil – A scent-mapping journey across the Mornington Peninsula, where individual scents are located, collected, purified, and distilled.
Match Scents to Musical Notes – Identifying a distinct scent for Middle C and then assigning corresponding scents to the remaining notes of the scale (C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C).
Through this multisensory experiment, Finding Middle C reimagines the connection between sound and smell.
