The Homesickness Kit (2013) is a practical multi-scent carrying device with futuristic applications for space travelers (refugees, émigrés), who could use it as a palliative for homesickness when dispossessed of Earth. The Kit contains one perfume split into eight essences embedded in beeswax.
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For the selection of scents, I worked with Dr. Gayil Nalls. She has conducted extensive research into which botanical scents are most significant to humans cross-culturally.
The constellations hand-painted on the Kit’s surface show the sky from Earth’s perspective, making it both a mnemonic object and a map pointing the way back to Earth. Battlestar Galactica fans will remember an episode that also presented this navigation idea. Three years in development, the Homesickness Kit is both handmade and highly technical.