Lyndsey Walsh: EAU DE PARFUM TMAU (2nd installment)

“EAU DE PARFUM TMAU” is a smell composition based on the smell of the medical condition Trimethylaminuria (“Fish Odor Syndrome”). TMAU is caused by a genetic condition related to a mutation in the FMO3 gene. This mutation causes the body’s metabolic processes to break down trimethylamine, which is a colorless amine produced by microbes in the gut that has a fishy or rotten fish-smelling odor. This condition causes people with this mutation to have a fishy body odor. In so-called “normal” metabolic processes, trimethylamine is broken down into a molecule that does not emit an odor. “EAU DE PARFUM TMAU” is an artistic attempt to recreate the smell of the genetic condition while critically reflecting on the ways we culturally and socially value particular genetic conditions and bodily traits.