odourofdevonviolet.com
The Scent That Captures That "1930s Moment"!
All material copyrighted to odourofdevonviolet.com © 2014
or to the various credited sources © 2014
LX
According to Ott –interlocuted by Mander– the retina
Translates light waves, which, ‘aside from their role as
Image creators’, also ‘pass via neurochemical channels
Into and through the pineal and pituitary glands’
(The former supposed by some to be a vestigial visual organ,
The inner or Third eye, and the latter, once believed to be
The lap of the soul), and thus in turn into our ‘endrocine
Systems’, glands which secrete different types of hormones
Into human bloodstreams (strange alchemies!) –and so, through
This weird ‘tele-synthesis’ we take this artificial light into
Our cellular structures, and so crave for more such false-light
Like addicts after a daily fix in front of the set to recharge
The cathode-ray tubes of our heads with vitality-sapping
Radioactivity; and ‘even minute changes in wavelength
Spectra (what we call “colour”)… cause important biochemical
Alterations’ in the body… Ott’s tele-dialectics are
Obscure and little known today, in spite of official diffusion –
And Rediffusion– from the Smithsonian Institute at the time
Of first publication; perhaps because its findings would
Compromise commercial interests of tracing consumer
Televisual habits on which to capitalise, lassitudes
That latch onto the latest lantern models, ever-more invasive
And manipulative, conditioning thought, function and
Behaviour, panaromically Orwellian, slowly eroding
Our natural faculties with false information, vicarious
Experiences, replacement sensations, synthetic sense-
Impressions (until, by Nineteen Eighty-Two, broadcasters
Were attempting to facilitate olfactory interaction with
Scented scratch-cards –Aroma-Scope and Odorama– in a bid
To create Smell-O-Vision! Retarded in its amateur teething
Stages compared to DEVONVIOLETVISION, which has
Successfully introduced the smell-medium into TV viewing,
So now viewers can not only see and hear but also smell
The almost imperceptible scents of people and places on screen,
Though, as yet, not pick up their living auras, still arrested in
Transmission (the synthesis of television with clairvoyance
Is still in the nursery, in terms of experimentation, but it is
Anticipated eventually we will harness the telepathic potential
Of Tele), so humans exude less verisimilitude or personality
Compared to brand-spanking-new products of immanent
Advertising, as we slowly unpeel the labels) –leading to
Conspiracy theories as to televisions being one-way silver
Surface portals for Government Mass Observations– and,
As ever, built to last no longer than the next cyclical tidal shift...
...In spending patterns … Full colour, these macro-scopes
Appear to our eyes, though they only actually emit red, blue
And green light –the other chromatic nuances automatically
Mixed by the palettes of our retinas –we armchair hypno-painters;
Ott also pointed out that all phosporescences are affective,
The only convivial type being quaint old natural light, which
Has its ‘peak intensity in the blue-green region from 450
To 500 nanometers’ at noon –while the most potentially
Damaging is ‘particularly’ at the ‘pink’ end of the spectrum…
LXI
In-tune with Anne Waldman’s ‘surrogate moon’ aphorism,
Lousie Lacey, in her Lunaception (1976),
Argued that the female menstrual cycle used to be ‘attuned
To moonlight’ (that ageold ‘White Goddess’ rhythm) -not so
Anymore in post-technological times; one Dr Wurtman
Set about experimenting with rats to prove this thesis,
With sharp results, and stats, and tails of white mice withering
Under concentrated ultraviolet light exposure… Wurtman also
Discovered that ‘a skin disease, erythropoietic protoporphyria’
Was ‘caused by an imbalanced reaction to wavelengths in
The region of 400 nanometers, the region of the colour violet.
Herpes infections and psoriasis represent imbalances
Within a similar range: 365 nanometers, ultraviolet’ –
And more: Wurtman also found that ‘blue light is the most
Effective in decomposing pure solutions of bilirubin,
An imbalance of which causes’ jaundice –O for lack of those
Bilirubin juices! Mander left his focus on the effects of light
And spectra back in 1977 by tantalisingly noting
That ‘People are now beginning to be interested in the effects
Of red light on man’… But if that were truly the case, then,
Ever since the Seventies we should have been craving more
For a chromatic curve away from blue torch-lights towards
A red-shift in perceptions –and this clearly hasn’t happened,
And still yet to, as late as today, in the early twenty-first
Century; it seems instead we have to settle for the adulterated
Compromise of the vacilating violet end of the spectrum…