If dating in London wasn’t bad enough already, Bompas & Parr have only gone and invented the world’s first armpit sniffing date night, as part of their Alcoholic Architecture project. We know, we know, it’s every singleton’s dream. You walk into a bar. You know that you’re looking fiiiiine, but the butterflies at the bottom of your stomach keep you on your toes as you know that tonight is the night. You spot the (wo)man of your dreams on the other side of the room, give a coy smile and sidle over…you can feel their skin brush yours…they whisper something in your ear that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up as they lean in to…SMELL YOUR ARMPIT?! Wait, WHAT! Oh yes, we’re in London and it’s 2016. It all make scents.
[Bompas & Parr]Meeting someone ‘normally’ (ie. through a friend/in a non-armpit sniffing bar) is just not acceptable anymore. Duh. How could you be so lammmeeeee? Armpit sniffing is all the range. Why? Who nose! Actually, Bompas & Parr do. Playing with the idea that pheromones play a role in attraction, they are hosting the event (taking place on Wednesday 27th April) in ‘asmall-scale revolt against a highly deodorized world and online-dating‘, and for a night of shared olfactory stimulations and intimate explorations of personality via the pit. It apparently gives insight into your genetic compatibility…but if our armpit odour is anything to go by, we are going be to alone forever…
[Bompas & Parr]Our body odour is largely influenced by Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) molecules (or lack of deodorant…?) which are genetically determined and linked to the immune system. MHC is also linked to sexual preference, so differences in body odour are detected and responded to on the basis of an individual’s gender and sexual orientation. Another advantage of Romancing the Armpit speed dating is added awkwardness, giving a telling insight into their personality. After all, what’s the point in matching genetically with an armpit that belongs to an aesthetically intolerable face or nauseating character? There’s nowhere to hide! Your eye contact, humour, physical and emotional interactions during nose-to-pit engagements are set to reveal a lot. Deo, pruning and B.O are all optional!
Alcoholic Architecture, One Cathedral Street, Borough Market, SE1 9DE
