Remember the slow, luxurious unboxing photo sets and videos that used to accompany the release of new Apple products? There was always one aspect missing from these displays: the distinctive smell of fresh packaging and electronics, which has now been recreated for a gallery exhibition. Fragrance company Air Aroma worked with a team of artists known as Greatest Hits to develop a scent that captured "an Apple product being opened for the first time." In order to create it, perfume makers had a new computer mailed to their lab in France, then mixed scents until they had created something that approximated the many diverse elements of unboxing. That included "the smell of the plastic wrap covering the box, printed ink on the cardboard, the smell of paper and plastic components within the box, and of course the aluminum laptop which has come straight from the factory where it was assembled in China."

Now that the fragrance has been created, it's not going to be sold. Instead, it will be used exclusively for "De facto Standard," an upcoming Melbourne exhibit that appears to be about the format wars between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. We could speculate about what the artists hope to accomplish by infusing their show with a scent associated with newness and prestige, but unfortunately we won't get a chance to find out for ourselves by visiting.