Olfactory art: when scent makes believing, seeing and hearing: studycases on the use of scents in the art, design and game world

Abstract

With three studycases of my own work I want to show how scents can be used on an innovative creative way and that digitalizing scents will create more opportunities in using scents in art, design and games.Studycase 1: Olfacio (2012-2013), the First Scent Recognition App for the iPadWorld leader in playing cards makers Cartamundi, in conjunction with Peter De Cupere, a well-known olfactory artist have joined forces to create a World’s First “Scent Recognition Cards. “Ten cards have been carefully designed to feature an image of an imaginary flower which has also been specially printed to give off an alluring and floral scent. Combined with the special OLFACIO app, available in the Apple App Store, the player can make his iPad sniff the cards. In the app, an imaginary machine, with an ‘artificial digital nose’ can identify the card and plant that is placed on the screen. Kids can now experiment with combinations of imaginary plants & scents, while the iPad is capable of identifying the different scents. Truly Amazing! Both partners have plans to explore the possibilities further with more scent apps to come in the future.(Reference: www.olfacio.be , http://goo.gl/6Zplr )Studycase 2: Olfactiano (1997 – 2004), the first scent piano in the world. The first idea was to compose sentences with smells based on a research Peter De Cupere has done on creating a smell alphabet. So this Olfactiano has 26 smell distributors ( 8 base notes, 9 middle notes and 9 top notes) and one distributor for fresh air. The Olfactiano of the future will be totally digitalized. Sounds will be scents and scents will be sounds. (Reference: www.scentconcerts.com )Studycase 3: Blind Smell Stick and Blind Smell Touch (2012, Rio de Janeiro): navigating through smellWith the Blind Smell Stick people can experience a place just by navigating through smell. It offers the possibility to help blind people to find their way in the city, or to just give them a smell sign that there is something nasty like a dog faeces lying on the ground, so they won’t step on it! But also imagining that every street has a specific smell. It would be great to walk on Potsdamer Platz and smell not the car exhausts but the smell of grass or even the smell of a mighty flower like an orchid. And when there is a crossing you might smell some burned meat just to warn you that you have to watch out. With digitalizing scents there’ll be even more possibilities. (Reference: www.blindsmellstick.com , http://goo.gl/tKqJd )Conclusion: digitalizing scents might have a lot of potency in the world of art, design and game.