Preparation for my workshop with the Novus North East Teams – there were staff from HMP Holme House, HMP Northumberland, HMP Durham, HMP Kirklevington, and HMP Deerbolt.

The Workshop contained 7 new scents including 4 bespoke fragrances designed by Anthony Wilcox from Carvansons  –There were 350 individual / stamped and prepared samples.

I also ran 2 x on-site sessions at HMP Holme House in Stockton-On-Tees.
The Education and Enrichment teams are now running these workshops across the North East Prison Sector. There are some really dedicated staff working in Education and Enrichment across this sector. Perfume Stories will be included in the Educational Curriculum to support a range of Learning and Enrichment Programmes.

More positive news about the Prison service. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has appointed a CEO known for employing ex-offenders as the new Prisons Minister – James Timpson, of the Timpson Group
–
Mr Timpson had invested “a huge amount over many years” into rehabilitating offenders and he was “very pleased” to have given him the post. His comments came after prison governors last week warned jails could run out of space within days.
James Timpson is the chair of UK charity the Prison Reform Trust, which aims to reduce imprisonment and improve conditions for inmates and families.

–

In January 2023 I visited Carvansons, based in Lancashire. They produce and manufacture perfume for companies across the UK, in Europe and throughout the Far East. The Carvansons Headquarters is part science laboratory and part high tech factory. I met with Luke Whowell Director at Carvansons and the Head of Marketing, Vicki Last. Carvansons were keen to support the project and to provide technical advice. 

We discussed the idea of producing a kit with a bespoke range of scents from Carvansons for the Learners at the HMP’s and the Novus teams. These new scents would be inspired by some of the reoccuring narratives from previous workshops – cut grass, wood and bubblegum. I thought these direct scents may resonate with Learners.

I went back to HMP Buckley Hall in April 2023 and introduced these new Carvansons fragrances to a new group of learners. HMP Buckley Hall is a category B and C Prison. The HMP Buckley Hall Learners are normally a couple of years into a long sentence.  

“ Reminded me of the resin I used as a kid playing the violin. That was over 30 years ago.”

“ A football changing room when I was younger and used to play for a local team.”

In the summer of  2023 I began a collaboration with Novus teams from the North East, they included staff from HMP Northumberland, HMP Durham, HMP Holme House, HMP Kirklevington, and HMP Deerbolt. Sarah Hartley along with North East Regional Managers Sonia Sultman and Bev Hughf helped facilitate the session. We discussed how this project could be deloyed across a number of HMP sites in the North East. This also offered an opportunity to draw on the counselling, dyslexia expertise and teaching methodologies of the Novus Education teams. Reviewing the handouts, one suggestion was to remove standard graphic devices such as lines and graphs that indicate where text should be written. I was informed  that these academic formal structures can be very off putting and a barrier for many dyslexic and non typical Learners. 

I provided learning and perfume fragrance packs. In addition to the scent, the handouts included a large poster info graphic, worksheets and examples from classic literature that reference perfumes in their  stories, such as works by Raymond Chandler and Fyodor Sologub. 

I also tried out some of the Carvansons scents with Learners at HMP Risley. This group were on the Sexual Offenders Training Programme. More than two in five (43%) men in prison aged 50 or over have been convicted of sex offences.  (The Prison Reform Trust 2023 ) 

The was a question around how would the project run when it is delivered on site by the Novus Teams ? Initial feedback looked promising. The project proved to be a good fit for those groups studying English. 

“Enshrined in the box was a sealed envelope, en-grained with the faint scent of Cuir de Ruisse  lingering in the air like she was standing next to me in her bold stature. Intrigued to open the letter, there it was in bold the reason behind the scent that she wore. I was touched by the reason behind the scent and could feel the tears running down my cheeks. Upon reading each page, I could peel every layer of the mask behind my Grandma’s boldness and see the softer side.”

“A world so far apart to the world I have been used to. I was remembering the times when I was so homesick and all I wanted to do was spend time with my mum cooking and reading together.”

In December 2023 I was invited to return to take part in a bespoke Learning session at  HMP Holme House in Stockton-On-Tees with Victoria Last and Anthony Wilcock from Carvansons. The Carvansons team gave a presentation which they normally ran with their clients at Perfume Seminars across the Middle East.  This workshop was a mix of Learners from the Maths and English classes. It was an investigation of the three primary fragrances that make up the uinique smell of the popular fizzy drink, Coca Cola.

The event was organised by Beverly Hughf, the Educational Manager at HMP Holme House. The Education Staff from Novus had been running Perfume Stories for a few months. We were treated to a specially designed ‘Perfume Stories’ menu, which featured special dishes remade by learners based on their own olfactory history. It included ‘Banksy’s Nan’s Chicken Broth’. The food and the service in the Learner ran restaurant was excellent.

Perfume Stories had been integrated across the curriculum at HMP Holme House. The work included maths and infographics that explained how the learners responded to the scents. The postives and the negatives. Social Enterprise Staff worked with learners on a range of scented Christmas cards. IT Learners produced digital artwork that framed quotes from the Perfume Stories Workshops. At the end of the session, the Learners had to work out which ones they were.  

I returned to Carvansons to review a range food based scents that have been designed specifically for these Workshops. This was based on feedback from the Education Teams and learners in the North East. This new range of scents included strawberry cakes, tomatoes, greenhouses, pizza dough and baked bread.

Perfume Stories, Workshop 2 is scheduled for July 2024. 

Perfume Stories was shortlisted at the North East Prison Group Awards 2024. A big thank you to the Novus and HMP teams that nominated my project.

In January, I was invited to discuss my Perfume Research Project with Tanya Mironova, Olfaction Specialist who is based in Copenhagen and produces a podcast covering lots of scent, science and well being subjects – with guests that have included Dr. Michael Leon, Sofia Ehrich and Sai Kandalgaonkar. The focus on the conversation is around my work with learners in UK Prisons.

I have a scouse accent and talk very quickly – You can listen to my interview here

As reported in The Guardian – The prison population has passed 88,000, the highest number ever recorded in England and Wales. It was reported that Prisons in England have run emergency regimes 22 times this year, after falling below minimum staffing levels. Prisoners are often locked up for up to 23 hours a day. Experts warned this was denying prisoners access to work, the library, rehabilitation or even meals and lead to leading to a culture of hopelessness.

Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons in his Annual Report (2022) cited the lack of purposeful activity in Prisons and that the lack of face-to-face teaching had the most negative impact on prisoners with low levels of literacy and additional learning needs. 

Some of my visits had to be rearranged because of a shortage of security staff. Nearly half of officers (47%) who left the service in 2022 had been in the role for less than three years, more than a quarter (25%) left after less than a year. (Prison Reform Trust 2023). There were a couple of times were I turned up at a HMP, to find the session had been cancelled. Learners did not or could not, be released from other duties. 

I met lots of excellent and caring staff right across all the HMP’s. Sarah Hartley and the Novus Team, were the key facilitators in this project. They supported and helped me develop the project. It was a unique opportunity to visit and work with Learners in some unusual places. From the VP wing at HMP Liverpool to the Chapel and the recovery group at HMP Hindley. 

I can understand why most of the luxury Perfume companies never responded to my requests for feedback or interviews. Companies selling expensive perfume may not want to be associated with institutions that deal with crime and punishment. There is real complexity in building a workshop around something that has a big connection with image and sexual allure. The Marquez quote from Love in the Time of Cholera begins with unrequited love. The end of that novel has a surreal and poetic ending. The quote below from one of the learners at HMP Hindley may not be a line from Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But quite possibly, it could be the start of something else. Change, rehabilitation and redemption.

“ The more I can Imagine my future – the greater the possibility. What does my future smell like ? Does the world have a place for me. The past was how I remembered it. How I experienced it. It taught me how to feel. I experience now through the mirror of the past. How I respond to the past affects my future.” 

Perfume Stories are a series of sensory and storytelling workshops based around Perfume. The participants develop critical learning skills by responding to a a number of multi-sensory tasks – writing down and telling their own stories through narratives in poetry, spoken word and image making. Many of these timetabled sessions had to be cancelled at short notice due to security staff shortages.

Since its pilot with learners at HMP Liverpool in 2022. This workshop has run with learners at HMP Hindley, HMP Buckley Hall, HMP Liverpool and HMP Risley. Many of these learners have complained about the amount of time they spend behind their doors.

The latest stage of Perfume Stories: Alchemy and Essence is now being delivered by Novus staff across five sites in the North East – HMP Holme House, HMP Durham, HMP Northumberland, HMP Kirklevington and HMP Deerbolt. This is part of the Functional Skills English Curriculum.

Next stop – USA. More soon.

Perfume Stories. An update.

In January 2023 I visited https://carvansons.co.uk/, they are one of the biggest producers of fragrance in Europe. I met with Luke Whowell, Director at Carvansons and the Head of Marketing, Vicki Last.

We discussed the idea of producing a bespoke kit to use with the learners at the HMP’s and with Novus. In addition to the Perfumes and fragrances I’ve been using in this project, I experimented with a number of direct scents at a recent workshop at HMP Buckley Hall * The impact exceeded my expectations. The prisoners responded really positively to the experience. Here are a few extracts  *

R Reminded me of the resin I used as a kid playing the violin.

D A football changing room when I was younger and used to play for a local team.

This new collaboration with Carvansons is now being run in conjunction with Novus across a number of HMP sites in the North East – these include HMP Northumberland, HMP Durham, HMP Holme House, HMP Kirklevington and HMP Deerbolt.

I’ve also just completed probably my final on site workshops at HMP Risley. One of the prisoners retells a story from their childhood, a memory ( one of the new Carvansons Scents ) of sitting around a table eating cake at home, when they were small. It was nearly fifty years ago. You forget about the doors, the locks, the noise, the security and more security. It’s the effects of 2.6 – Xylenol, Terpinolene and posh French Perfume. The stories are their stories. HMP Liverpool, HMP Hindley, HMP Buckley Hall and HMP Risley.

This AO worksheet/ info graphic is a Work In Progress. Over the last two years, the learners at HMP Hindley, HMP Buckley Hall and HMP Liverpool have contributed some of their favourite Perfume Stories and memories. It’s one of the final workshops. In addition to the multi-sensory experience. the project introduces the learners to The Science of Olfaction / Perfume and Literature / Design Practice and Critical Thinking.

The Time Travellers: Alchemy and Essence is now part of Enrichment in Custody and is one of 4 Arts Projects delivering programmes at HMP Hindley, HMP Liverpool and HMP Styal. This is funded by Arts Council England. This is part of the HMPPS agenda around rehabilitation and reform.

Many of the learners loved the science and the facts. In particular, the links between Jasmine and the fecal smell of indole. But as Paola Tataro points out in her brilliant book On The Scent ( Tataro,2022 ) In western culture, we have very few words that describe smells. In custody, the learners have their own unique layer of language. Such as ‘smoking fish’ which means smoking spice – this is not the vindaloo curry variety.

Perfume Stories: The Time Travellers

The last of the pilot workshops have ran at the Recovery Unit at HMP Hindley and the Education Wing at HMP Buckley Hall in Rochdale. This project is now funded by ACE England. A collaboration with Novus / Enrichment in Custody. Novus is the market leader of education in UK prisons; supporting rehabilitation programmes in three of the participating prisons. HMP Hindley, HMP Buckley Hall and HMP Liverpool.

Of all our senses, olfaction is especially involved in forming and remembering emotional associations Tollas,S ( 2010) Life is Everywhere Mono Kulture 23.

I redesigned the diagram (see above) to help explain the neural journey and how scent works for the new groups of learners. Some additional things I learned – How rose water was used to disguise Ketamine shipments from India in the 1980’s and how a professional car thief wouldn’t bother stealing my car.

My future can be seen in the mirror of my choosing. From today I will remember good things. I am aware of my experience, I will teach myself how to feel healthy. I will look in the mirror and smile back. So my future will smell good. 

F.D HMP Hindley 

Perfume Stories: Part Four

This is not HMP Hindley.
It’s the HMP Hindley Visitors Car Park. I’m not sure buses stop here.

I was invited back by Novus to run a series of Perfume Stories sessions at HMP Hindley. A Category C Prison, somewhere between Bamfurlong and West Houghton, in the North West. I spent 8 weeks working with two groups of learners in two different parts of the Prison.

The Prisoners always have fish on Fridays at HMP Hindley. If you are lucky enough to have a Chinese money launderer and a prisoner with a hotplate on your wing, you can pool the cold chips, heat them up, add garlic, salt and pepper, Chinese chip shop style.

The first group session ran for 4 weeks in the library, helping me to coordinate the group was the librarian, Sue. She told me the most popular books in the library were about Crime and Criminality. Her easy going professionalism made the workshop environment a really positive one to work in.

One of the learners response to the Perfumes was to return to his mothers bedside at a Palliative Care Ward in Liverpool. Another re experienced the smell of his fathers work van, when they were small and lived a different life. One of the most curious stories was from a learner who was returned to the sensation he experienced at a house in the North of England. It was haunted. This particular Learner was instrumental in shaping and redesigning a large infographic which will eventually map out a timeline for these narratives.

The title Perfume Stories was always a difficult sell to a few of the learners. Most were inquisitive, however the feedback suggested they were put off signing up, because of associations with the word ‘Perfume’.

One of the Prisoners contributions to a new Infographic (work in progress)

In his visceral and searing book about the US Prison system, In The Belly of The Beast (1981)Jack Henry Abbott, talks about memory being arrested in jail, how it changes and begins to tear itself free from facts and reality. Perhaps, that’s why the Prisoners at HMP Liverpool and HMP Hindley have responded so well to Perfume Stories. It can fold back time. They become Time Travellers.

If a time traveller from 100 years ago walked into a prison today – whether one of the inner-city Victorian prisons or the new-builds where the majority of men are held – the similarities would trump the differences. They would recognise the smells and the sounds, the lack of activity and probably some of the staff. It is not only the buildings that have stayed the same – it is the whole ethos of the institution.        

Frances Crook / the Howard League for Penal Reform The Guardian 10.08.21

I returned to HMP Liverpool on Friday 21 May 2021. My Learners were all located on one specific wing of the prison. We were to interview the learners at the cell doors. The noise and environment remained a big challenge.  Working directly on the wing and at the cell door meant that in addition to the conversations with the individuals, I was trying to process my own experience. Working on the VP wing (Vulnerable Prisoners) raised many of the standard moral arguments about these types of Learners. Many of the Learners are on the wing because they owe debt or would struggle within the main prison cohort.

One of the potential issues issues is that you have to pause or wait between experiencing each scent. A few of the group felt all the perfumes smelled the same. If you don’t pace or have a break, the nose will stop detecting any nuances or significant differences.On the return visit, they were more aware of the subtleties. This can be due to the base notes that are more lasting. I was asked to return with more samples.

From a Design and Illustration perspective, I had placed far too much emphasis on the visual output, the graphs and diagrams. How I wanted the work to look. This is a common factor from a discipline that normally has to borrow seriousness from other disciplines. I often use the idea of free association with post grad and undergrad students. I was hoping it challenged some of the learners expectations about where this project may lead. The reaction from this group was really revealing.

Mental escapism, the project translates you far beyond the prison walls.

Good project, it had me thinking.

I was surprised how powerful the project was in evoking memories – I enjoyed it though.

It held my attention, unusual, unique, interesting – different from any other education in here.

‘Magic’ – the connections to the scents got me to think and I can see links to poetry.

Positive experience in a place like this.

Different initiative, it transported me back to primary school.

It was boss, I enjoyed exploring the activity.

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