Whisky is a complex spirit with a range of flavors. The Macallan recognizes that introducing whisky to some people requires a bit of education. Knowing that smell is such an important element in taste, they thought it would be an interesting experiment to teach people about the flavors of whisky. The Macallan‘s partnership with celebrated British perfumer Roja Dove created an olfactory experience to do just that.

The Macallan and Roja Dove Sensory Experience takes people through the spectrum of scent, educating the nose in common whisky notes. It’s meant to help people approach the whisky palate without the immediate—and often overpowering—alcoholic sensation so that later on, tasting the whiskey may bring out characteristics that may otherwise have been missed. “Everybody so far has said that they are shocked that they are able to smell things in the whisky that they have never, ever noticed before,” explains Dove. I was lucky enough to spend an hour going through the Experience with Dove and David Cox, director of The Macallan’s Fine and Rare whiskies and indeed learned to distinguish the various components that give whisky its flavor.

Dove selected 12 pure essences that he felt were representative of different whiskey traits. The first six introduce scent pairs that help distinguish between things like stillness versus volatility, fruitiness versus spiciness, and maturity versus immaturity. Dove’s experience goes back and forth between scents in an opposite way from traditional whisky-tasting, bringing out base notes after the high notes and the sweet before the dry. The kit provides a certain education that a tasting alone cannot. The second set of six scents creates two aromatic blends that imitate whiskies from The Macallan range, which are later used in combination with the whisky during tasting. By the end, the nose has been properly trained and participants leave equipped with the vocabulary to go forward and taste whiskey on their own. It’s perhaps not a surprise that through his own methods Dove has come to appreciate and enjoy whisky. The box contains scent strips for testing and glasses to combine the scents into a “bouquet,” which mirrors the whiskey-tasting experience. Armed with this educational tool, The Macallan’s brand ambassadors are set to spread the essence of their spirit through scent, hoping to convert non-believers to the fascinating world of scotch whisky and provide connoisseurs with an additional tool for appreciation

Via: psssst

The Lapin Kulta Solar Kitchen Restaurant is a concept resulted by the  collaboration between Catalan designer Martí Guixé and Finnish food visionary Antto Melasniemi. Is a concept built around a solar kitchen, where the food is cooked using only alternative energy: the sun. Unlike the traditional way of cooking, solar heat affects the taste and texture of the dish in a surprising and positive way, producing a completely different taste experience.

The restaurant is fully powered by (and therefore dependent on) solar energy, so the amount of sunshine each day will determine the menu of the day.

Via: PSSSSST

Theatre for One is project conceived by Christine Jones , a freelance set designer.

Theatre for One is a portable performing arts space for one performer and one audience member, that turns public events into private acts.

You can check a video here.

Limelight: Saturday Night is a project created by Sans façon taken place in 2010 in six cities across the UK and America, where a selection of sidewalks has been turned into a impromptu stages by turning streetlights into theatre spotlights. The result is an astonishing mix of reactions.

The simple intervention replaces two streetlights with theatre spotlights and instantly transfoms the street into a stage and passers-by into performers, somewhere between spectacle and surveillance. This intentionally subtle alteration to street lighting suggests on one hand the latent potential of public realm as places of interaction and celebration and on the other hand offers an alternative approach to city’s lighting as more than securitarian.

Lullaby is a gentle, slumber show designed to send you to sleep. Bring your pyjamas and toothbrush and pile up the zzz’s at this romantic rock-a-bye nocturne. Book a single, a double or a triple bed and sleep with us on a summer night in the city. Enjoy your reveries as sister songstresses H. Plewis, Harriet Plewis and domestic dreamers Matthew Robins and Tim Spooner create a nod-off narrative of soothing storytelling and choral cradle song.

Lullaby is a moonlit soporific serenade followed by seven hours of slow-wave sleep rounded-off by breakfast to send you on your way.

via Barbican

Swallowable Parfum is a digestible scented capsule that works through your own perspiration. Once absorbed, fragrance molecules are excreted through the skin’s surface. A unique odor is emanated, depending on each individual’s acclimatization to temperatures, to stress, exercise, or sexual arousal.

This utterly intimate technology is being developed by body architect Lucy McRae in a collaboration with Harvard biologist Sheref Mansy.

Via: Next Nature

The WSPS began in 2008 as a quirky little social art project. Postmaster Lea Redmond sets up her tiny roaming office in cafes and shops in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond and offers a teeny tiny letter transcription service to passers-by. At these appearances the letters are transcribed by hand on a miniature, wooden roll-top desk in the tiniest of script, sealed with a miniscule wax seal with the sender’s initial pressed into it, and packaged up with a magnifying glass.

Via Leafcutter

Opera fireplace is a new project created by  Sebastian Errazuriz.
It is a hand-carved from 600 pounds of italian marble,this sculpture reproduces an opera stage complete with curtains, stage, floorboards and stairs, yet is also fully functional, designed to be installed in any house.
The fireplace comes equipped with several wooden figures and a scaffolding structure, constructed from maple logs and carved by hand as well.

Via: Designboom

Robot Flâneur is a project made by London-based writer and programmer James Bridle, which claims to be an explorer for Google Street View. It allows you to virtually stroll the streets of nine different world cities. The website tends to re-examine Charles Baudelaire’s concept of the flâneur — a person who walks the city in order to experience it. The urban street views that are presented change every 30 seconds, so the only thing you have to do is lay back and passively explore the urban atmosphere.

Via: Pop-Up City