Chandler Burr's Untitled Series Back at Full Swing

The Untitled Series
A specific fragrance, chosen by author and critic Chandler Burr and presented anonymously, allowing you an uninfluenced opportunity to smell, guess, and discuss, before the name is ultimately revealed.
The ongoing saga is documented on Luckyscent where you can purchase decants in unlabelled vials from.

For S02E08 Burr writes:
"There is a damp cold that England seems to specialize in, but this cold doesn’t lower the level of scent, and the air was filled with brackish water, wet green grass, damp cement, a few traces of car exhaust and ozone. The wind shifted, and I smelled her perfume...Suddenly there was a completely different green: a spring-twig green, filled with sunlight and mixed with freshly cut grass. A handful of fructose was tossed into the scent along with a few peonies. Then pieces of cool pink fruit. I felt exhilarated. During that moment—maybe five or six seconds—the Newcastle clouds were gone.
I asked her what it was. It’s in these bottles. I imagine most of you will be as surprised as I was to hear her answer."

Reveal date is set for 16/2. Good luck in the guessing game!

The Portal

'The Modernist Austrian architect Adolf Loos is famous for his 1908 contention that "ornament is crime." I love Peter Schjeldahl’s response to this. "Ornament is not crime, OK? Crime is crime." But spray on E07 and you’ll experience how a single work can make you understand Loos’ point of view. E07’s scent artist is, moreover, categorical about agreeing with the architect’s strong, clear aesthetic vision. Loos talked about a 'passion for smooth and precious surfaces', and E07 has one of the smoothest and most precious surfaces of any work of olfactory art ever created.." '

~ Chandler Burr

David Harber "The Portal", 'a dramatic (and substantial) garden sculpture' as per Shioban Casey, 'comprising an amalgam of oxidised steel and mirror polished stainless steel. These two metals have been interwoven creating random organic petals, designed to mimic and reflect the patterns found in nature itself'.

Thus concludes the presentation of the S02E07 "unlabeled" fragrance in Burr's  Untitled Series project.
I usually withhold predictions, yet this time I will make an exception: it must be Eau parfumée au thé vert by famed jewelers Bvlgari and perfumer Jean Claude Ellena.

Guessing Games & The Aesthetics of Innovation

If you have been receiving the Luckyscent newsletters you will know by now of the second series of the Untitled Series by Chandler Burr, which was previously hosted on Open Sky. An improvement, I would assume, on many levels, the new distributor of the project assures a dedicated perfumista core audience. What it involves is easy but brilliant too at the same time: experiencing a scent without the guiles of marketing, design or promo routinely attached to it. No notes, no name, no perfumer, no house, just your sense of smell and small glass vials with a number on it to sniff for a month until the revelation is presented at the end of it (for this month, it's June 25th).

Chandler tries to offer "pure scent", involving fragrances which take the game a step forward and I totally see the reasoning behind this. Whether he succeeds or not is up to you and your own opinions on such matters. My own personal stance is that perfume is so inextricably tied to design & marketing (in fact I consider it ~for the most part and in most cases~ a division of design) it's hard to consider it when bared down to the bone; it detracts from some of its beauty and wit, a bit like the Elgin Marbles as seen at the British Museum rather than under their intended Attic sun; they're still artful and brilliant, but doesn't the whole concept involve context as well? Even so I do think the Untitled Series is a great gauge of just how much our preconceptions act on our perception of scent and how wrong or right we decipher scent each time based on those; I love blind tests myself when I fragrance consult, my subjects often producing stunning results.

To get you all revved up for season's 2 episode's 2 scent, out now, please see a summary of the previous installments and make your best guess on the latest! (There is already discussion on Basenotes, but you're welcome to post your own suggestions here in the Comments).
Here is how Chandler presents S02E02 in his own words:

”I've never met anyone who doesn't like S02E02. In dozens of talks over the years, I've given it to thousands of people in all sorts of cultures, and the range is pleased enthusiasm to hypnotized worship. I'm on the far latter end. Done by one of the greatest living artists, who I'm very glad finally to be presenting in the Untitled Series, S02E02 is I think a quietly seminal work in a specific way: We all know the majority of people today say they 'don't like perfume.' By 'perfume' they mean aldehydes and a booming voice and 'look at me' style. S02E02 forces you to redefine 'perfume.' Wait (people think, transfixed on the sidewalk), what is this? Did an island just materialize around the corner? E02 is the Debussy bridge over which one escapes Rachmaninoff's bombast, transport for all those who yearn for the fundamentally different and exquisite, the liltingly lovely.”

– Chandler Burr

For what is worth, I also have never ever met anyone who doesn't like it and I too find it liltingly lovely… :-)

LIST OF EPISODES

                Season 1

The Untitled Series S01E01: Prada Infusion d'Iris by Daniela Andrier                         Prada

The Untitled Series S01E02: Mugler Cologne by Alberto Morillas                                Mugler

The Untitled Series S01E03: L'Etrog by Rodrigo Flores-Roux and Yann Vasnier      Arquiste

The Untitled Series S01E04: Yuzu Rouge by Raphaël Haury                                            06130

The Untitled Series S01E05: Eau de Lierre by Fabrice Pellegrin                                      Diptyque

The Untitled Series S01E06: Bal D'Afrique by Jérome Epinette                                     Byredo

The Untitled Series S01E07: Vanille Insensee Cologne by Ralf Schwieger                 Atelier Cologne

The Untitled Series S01E08: Rose Noir by Jérome Epinette                                            Byredo

The Untitled Series S01E09: Sel de Vetiver by Céline Ellena                                            The Different Co

The Untitled Series S01E10: Isle Ryder by David Moltz                                                     Hylands

                Season 2

The Untitled Series S02E01: Tom of Finland by Antoine Lie                                            Etat Libre d’Orange

The Untitled Series S02E02: ???

Untitled Series: Fragrance Detection & Appreciation of Pure Juice

Chandler Burr, the curator of The Department of Olfactory Art at New York's Museum of Arts and Design, the scent editor for GQ magazine and the former scent critic for The New York Times, is creating a project on OpenSky that’s never been done before. He’s bringing scent to life online.  It’s called the Untitled Series.

On the 1^st of every month Chandler will choose a perfume that’s already on the market – some famous and some from niche collections.  From this scent, he will remove all marketing -- no bottle, no package, no brand, no name and will put the scent in a 50ml lab bottle – allowing you to experience these scent works as scent and nothing else. He will give shoppers only the guidance of his carefully chosen words to understand each and determine if the fragrance is right for them.  His goal is to both enable and encourage shoppers to rethink perfume as a work of art, free from all visual cues and marketing techniques. Scents include those from the late 19^th century to last week, in all styles and all by the greatest scent artists in the world.  

There will be only 100 bottles available in the series, this month (the amount might slightly vary from month to month). The first fragrance called S01E01 (Season One Episode One) and will launch this Friday, June 1^st on OpenSky and the identity of the scent as well as more about the artist who created it will be revealed to shoppers on the last day of June.  The series will continue with a new launch on the first of every month and a subsequent reveal on the last day of each month. 

pic via marthastewart.com