Communicating and mediating smellscapes: the design and exposition of olfactory mappings

This chapter explores contemporary design practices that raise the potential for smellscape mappings to challenge the myth of map as a fixed and static truth. Traditional maps perform many functions; historically an attempt to render legible our world they seduce us with symbolic reality. However current olfactory mappings represent what and how the nose detects, communicating information about place and exploring individual relationships between place, time and smell. Following an evaluation of my own work this chapter argues for performative, creative smellscape mapping practices to investigate and create nuanced, embodied realities gained through the physical act of sniffing.