Olfactory Art and Smell Visualisation
- Submitting institution
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Canterbury Christ Church University
- Unit of assessment
- 34 - Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management
- Output identifier
- U34.011
- Type
- K - Design
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2014
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- While there is a significant body of publication on the soundscape, the smellscape and its visualisation remains an underdeveloped field of practice-based academic research.
Olfactory Art and Smell Visualisation comprises a series of data visualisations plus a research paper that develops a novel methodology for the detection and depiction of human-perceived urban smellscapes. In 2013 McLean was invited by multinational corporation International Flavors and Fragrances Inc (IFF) to deploy their Creative Olfactive Studio staff to assist in detecting smells in Amsterdam, resulting in the development of data visualisations (2014) and a journal article (2016). The work extends McLean’s earlier exploratory urban smellscape communication design by the development of ‘smellnotes’ as a tool for data collection, defining a system for data collation and analysis, and map design for the representation of collective olfactory encounters.
The practice-based research specifically investigated how a collectively-perceived smellscape might be encountered, described and depicted for shared communication and how smell symbolisation and motion graphics emphasise human-smell interaction. First, McLean developed the smellnote data fields, and structured the group smellwalk as a facilitated opportunity to focus on smell detection. Second, McLean used non-computational methods of textual analysis to group, and select, the most commonly occurring smells for representation. Finally, she designed representation systems to foreground smells in direct reference to the city infrastructure. McLean also trialled animation techniques to communicate the smellscape’s ephemeral qualities. Selected smells were synthetically recreated by perfumers at IFF for the launch, and subsequent exhibitions.
The research uncovered a gap between expectation and reality in Amsterdam’s overall smellscape and drew attention to the impact that time of day has on smell detections. This novel method of smellscape representation enables visual comparisons to be made and archival records to be kept of a city’s smells.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
