Pictograms

So, this blog saw an interesting comment yesterday and I wanted to take the time to address the one point that I thought most interesting and challenging in Anya's comment.
What do I want the rose, or linalool or whatever to do? I changed the question to include synthetics.

The starting point: When I create a fragrance I basically make a very complex chemical recipe. Add 1 gr of linalool into flask, add 2 gr of limonen.... , allow to react for 30 days at room temperature, ....add ethanol, mix, allow to ....When working with naturals, this recipe becomes very, very complicated, but at the end it still is a recipe containing a set of chemicals that are mixed in a certain order, allowed to react and find an equilibrium, diluted in ethanol, filtered, bottled, sold. A comment on the side: Our scent of smell is capable of quite some abstraction. Take phenylethylalcohol, add some citronellol, citral, damascenon eventually and people will recognize the rose. It is a similiar phenomenon like our visial sense: Draw a few lines and people will recognize the tree, the house, the dog... that's the trick with pictograms. In this sense: Phenylethylalcohol is the pictogramm for the rose scent.

Now, what do I want? It depends... for a certain scent I want some molecules in this mix to be identifiable, to stand out and form a sensorial impression that is recognized by its closeness to something we know. Like the rose. Do I care to be as close as possible to the roses natural scent. Nope! I care for the concept of rose, eventually I want the rose to become symbolic, to be lifted into an idea.

Some of the molecules are intended to be there to form a new sensorial impression that is also recognized but as something new. This new impression is sort of a holy grail... lucky us: There are lots of these grails around and just have to find them.

And then there is also a supportive class of molecules in a sense. These molecules are there to bring others up but never bring themselves into the game. Helpful servers, modest but indispensable.