Elemental surplus: The articulation of a whale and a molecule, alike

This article traces the emergence of modern smell as a media relation, one that evolves trough geographic practices of making and knowing the world. We follow the quintessential olfactory media, ambergris, from the context of its proto-industrial commodification on the New England whale fishery ship decks, through its formal application in the perfumer’s atelier, and then into proprietary molecular formulation by the global flavour and fragrance industry. Smell in this medial frame can be understood as a process and method of connecting things in the world a certain way, of querying how power moves through things, and how sensory experience itself structures history.