For the Jardins de Métis International Garden Festival 2018, Terpene, The Shape of Scent/La Forme d’un Parfum was proposed as a temporary installation to explore the question, “what is the physical shape of scent?”

Inspired by terpenes, the molecular compounds that give plants their distinctive scent, the design is a collection of cast resin crystals scattered around an enigmatic low stone ruin, echoing the greens of white spruce, refracting the dappled forest light and drawing the visitor inward. The crystals and the dry stone ruin are derived from the triangle – evident in the form of the nose, the canopy and needle of the spruce tree, and the molecular structure of terpenes.

As an iterative and interactive sculpture, visitors may assemble the crystals into infinite variations to create a playful garden created by their own idea of the physical shape of scent. As new visitors build on the previous day the garden becomes an evolving public interpretation of scent in four dimensions.