This multi-sphere perfume bottle has integral, independent chambers, holds six perfumes, and is related to my 2013 US utility patent, No. 8,499,960 B2. The design emerged as I was thinking about layers of space as related to cosmology, with perfume representing the chemistry of the interstellar medium and at the same time, its olfactory component to be a mutable, invisible, time-based sculpture. I created the structural drawings in 2007, then worked on prototypes with scientific glassblower Bob Maiden from 2007–2010 to produce these as well as larger spheres like the Strange Attractor with nine layers (see below).

As models of embodied consciousness, the multi-spheres represent a concept I was introduced to by Athena Hahn in 2007, which comes from cognitive science and Lakoff and Johnson's theories about how we imagine our central self to be within a mind, within a body, within the world, etc. — one can keep building out the model to solar system, within galaxy, within galaxy cluster and supercluster, within universe, within..... The bottles also visualize a collapse of micro and macro structures like atoms and solar systems, challenging our anthropocentric notions of size, space and time.

My utility patent covers any shape/form for integral chamber containers of three or more layers. The structure will continue to be elaborated with new audiences by using the bottle for progressive sensory experiences that privilege taste and smell.

More about other projects in the series can be found in "Archive".