Sensory chartography:urban smellscapes
Mădălina Diaconu(University of Vienna)
„Haptic and Olfactory Design.
Resources for Vienna’s Creative Industries”(2007–2010)
• a co-operation between:- Institute of Philosophy (University of Vienna)- Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Diagnostics (University
of Vienna)- Institute of Botany (University for Natural Resources and Life
Sciences Vienna)- University of Applied Arts Vienna - ZOOM-Children Museum Vienna
• funded by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF)
1. Methods: How to use your nose to discover a city
• Mental smell maps: The subjects are asked to draw a map of the city and to locate on it smells which occur to them spontaneously, using symbols or colours to be explained in a legend. Further parameters (how to draw the map, which symbols to use and how to describe odours) are deliberately left open.
• Monitoring smell maps: The subjects select an area to be
explored at least once a month. They download its map from the website of the municipality and record on it whatever odours they encounter during their walks, using freely chosen symbols and explaining them in a legend. It is important to note the date and the weather conditions. Alternative: keep a diary of the smells for a particular area.
2. Results of previous research: Sniffing Vienna
Mental maps
Participants: 56 students
Average age: 26
Gender: 42f /14m
Urban/rural: 28 „Viennese“ (born in Vienna oder living in Vienna at least for the last 7 years ), 28 „Non-Viennese“
Date: March 2007, March 2008
Graphics: Kristina Schinegger (Technical University Vienna)
82%75%
63% 59%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Nature Edible Exhaust fumesIndustry
Organic waste
Spatial categories in visualising smellscapes
• Paths/tracks: channels along which odours circulate (e.g. water course, streets)
• Point-like sources of discrete smells (e.g. pedestrians)• Focuses: strategic points of a city (e.g. the railway
station)• Emblems: specific monuments (St. Stephen Cathedral)• Areas.
Paths and tracks
Smell maps as narratives: olfactory “biographies”
Field of forces and crossing trails
One smellscape or plural smellscapes?
Monitoring smell maps
• Investigated area: Vienna, inner city• Participants: 12• Date: April-June 2007, 2008
• Graphics: Kristina Schinegger (Technical University, Vienna)
“The odours of fast-foods in the corridor can be savoured intensively only after entering the shop [...]. For the rest, with the exception of the florist’s and the newspaper kiosks, the shops’ characters cannot be perceived from outside, there are always strong ‘odour thresholds’.” (K.S.)
Graphics: Kristina Schinegger
Stephansplatz
“The smell of the inner city is a mixture mainly of horse urine, exhaust fumes, sweet smells and the odours of old walls and food.” (I.G.)
Forthcoming publications
• M. Diaconu, G. Buchbauer, J. Skone, K.-G. Bernhardt, E. Menasse (Eds.), Sensorisches Labor Wien. Urbane Haptik- und Geruchsforschung (Berlin, Vienna: Lit)
• M. Diaconu, E. Heuberger, R. Mateus-Berr, L. M. Vosicky (Eds.), Senses and the City. An Interdisciplinary Approach to Urban Sensescapes (Berlin, Vienna: Lit)
3. Bucharest, a fabric of aromas
„Let’s view, no, let’s sniff Bucharest. [...]
Were it a broth, it would be, say, a stew, a well blended mixture of cheap cologne and a handful of freshly spaded soil, a pinch of incense and copious litres of kerosene, gasoline and diesel oil, dry dung, thirsty sand and lime, hot exhaust fumes.”
(Magda Cârneci)
• Hărți desenate de participanții la workshop MethodologiesCitiesBucharest