Ampersand forward is a name I give to a way to being alive, to our constant becoming(s) in the flow of time, where every instant is an addition and a movement forward.

The symbol came to my mind when creating perfumes for my  PhD  (you can do that, and more, as part of a Creative and Critical Writing PhD),  looking into the fluidity of personal and cultural identity. While I went about making the perfumes, adding drops of essential oils into the vial, I thought how like life itself it was that once an element was added, it could not be taken away, there was no going back. But it could be changed by adding more – more perfumers alcohol, other essential oils. As in life, wehere experiences cannot be unlived, the only way was adding more experiences, and move on.

Ampersand Forward, as embodied thought, became a perfume, one without a fixed recipe, one which changes with every new oil added, the way we change, if imperceptibly,  with every single breath.