THE SPECULATIVE FUTURE

MY SPECULATIVE FUTURE “SCENSITIVE”

The world is in the midst of climate crisis and outbreaks of infectious disease. Humans who choose to live above ground are using all possible methods to restore the earth to its former glory: localising energy, using marine permaculture and regenerative agriculture to restore carbon to the atmosphere.

They live in inflatable structures which rise and deflate like a living organism and through many layers of chemical filters bring precious oxygen and life into their environments and exhale carbon dioxide.

They nurture a close relationship between humans and animals and are working towards a symbiosis with living things as they attempt to rebuild. Humans and their animal companions wear an exoskeleton to protect themselves from micro expression tracking and surveillance which became a popular concern during the human data collection age. The wearable conceals their true appearance while protecting their skin and hair/fur from the environment.

These exoskeletons, while necessary for survival above ground in the extreme conditions on earth, are also the place they are forced to carry their most treasured possessions. They have little control over where they live and severe limitations on what they can carry. The scent of times past is one of the most sacred items. Humans are born with a particular inherited physical disposition but spend their lives re-shaping their exoskeletons into cultural artefacts and shrines to their own individuality and experience.

Physical and emotional relationships have changed in response to the toxicity of the environment and the isolating experience of wearing an exoskeleton. It is not possible for people to have to have skin to skin contact with other humans. In the face of such loss and profound experience of alienation,  the sense of smell has become a powerful, portable and intimate source of comfort, escape, and a way of connecting with others and the sensory experience of humans in the centuries past that they see in the digital archives.

They are able to purchase scents, captured during the data collection age (2010s). They strongly crave nostalgic momentos like the smell of grass, fresh linen, sea breezes, a baby’s hair, freshly washed skin, the scent of flowers – all experiences lost to them. 

Because smell is such a crucial experience for them, and in maintaining their mental health, relationships, civilisation and whole systems are designed to accommodate this important resource. The Institute of Smell (tbd) was created to educate the world about aroma, perfumes, scents and odours and how to capture, preserve, and use them. The IOS works to reproduce and make available the various extinct olfactory experiences held in their archive. Unfortunately, the climate crisis once triggered unfolded so rapidly there wasn’t much time to preserve and record contextual information about what existed on Earth prior to the event. Very sadly, some olfactory experiences were lost forever and some were preserved but they have no way of knowing what they are.

Their buildings are now designed to allow the use of olfactory experience, temperature and lighting as a way of controlling space or evoking certain feelings and productive working environments.

In this way the living creatures have found happiness in a hybrid simulation of the past in an indoor and individualised world when the external environment is desolate, toxic and dangerous. 

THE INSTITUTE OF SMELL

The Institute of Smell is your gateway to a world of aroma. From fresh cut grass to new born baby, we are the world’s largest and most notable scent collection agency. We pride ourselves on our extensive odour libraries and range of scent collection products. We are committed to capturing and preserving your most valuable memories to be smelt and remembered for years to come.

As well as our access to our extensive research and scent libraries, we offer educational guides for Scent Theory. The theory was developed during the early years of scent collection research as a way to categorise and estimate values of individual aromas and scent compounds. The theory is used as a method to inform the development of infrastructure in our new world and create ideal environments for human performance.

Our scents are created based on original fragrances that are captured by our lab technicians and the public. Once the collected specimens arrive at our facility, DNA is extracted from the specimen and we identify it's gene sequence which will aid us in finding the correct sequence for the fragrance producing enzymes. The sequence is printed and inserted into yeast which is cultured to produce the scent molecules. We then decipher the molecule compound and use that to recreate the scent again and again.

You are able to be a part of the process by selling us your own scent specimens. Preserve your history by granting us permission to recreate and archive your scents in our library. This way, they will never be lost and can be reproduced and modified to create new odour compounds.

The Scent Wheel is divided into 6 sections which contain particular scent descriptors. The wheel can help to contrast and combine scents. Scents that sit next to one another on the wheel, within the same section, are known as primary scents. Combined compounds of these scents are called secondary. Scents that sit across from one another on the wheel are complementary.

SCENT THEORY

Scent theory creates a logical structure for olfactory experience. It is both the science and art of using scent. It explains how living creatures perceive scent; and the effects of how odors mix, match or contrast with each other. Scent theory also involves the messages smells communicate; and the methods used to replicate them.

This theory was developed alongside research that was conducted after the climate crisis. Once it was realised that scent was a way of resurrecting extinct plants and animals from their preserved forms - scent became a valuable tool for us as a society to improve our experience in our new environment. The theory emcompasses a range of definitions, concepts and design applications.

Scent theory relies on the research that there are strong associations between smell and imagery that has been hardwired into our brains or is culturally influenced. Color-odor association does not only occur in people with synesthesia, but to everyone. Scent theory helps to develop these connections and gives us a new vocabulary through which to transmit information.

Unlike color theory, this theory does not rely on a visual output in physical space, rather an imagined visual output which draws on a personal life experience and associations. The scent wheel is created from a data set of typical experiences and associations. This data set continues to grow and evolve over time but needs to be nurtured and regulated.

Scent theory operates in a similar way to color theory. Aroma can be categorized into primary, secondary and tertiary odors when mixed. Shade and tone can also be communicated through the output of the amount of odor. Scent is capable of being complementary, analogous or triadic around the scent wheel.

The theory has its own set of design elements and principles. This set of elements and principles gives us a guide to design and create using scent. The principles of scent help us to understand how to use elements to evoke a desired feeling or environment.

Just as people use words to describe smells, there is also a field of visual language qualities that are assigned to odor. There has always been a strong focus on the verbal mode of communication in our society and until recently it was our most successful way of expressing feelings and emotions. Though, we realise that scent, temperature, and light can be even more direct and powerful communication tools.

The evolution of scent theory can only occur if we continue to build our library of scents and odor compounds. Through the resurrection and development of more scents, we are able to bring our world back to life.

THE INSTITUTE OF SMELL AND AI

Advancements in technology led to the ability to feed olfactory experiences of humans and other organisms into deep learning. This changed the way scent was able to be collected and stored.

In the same way that human vision helped in influencing the initial frameworks for machine learning, understanding more complex and layered learning algorithms and computations used by the hippocampus and cerebellum in organisms (to process other senses) provided insights into how to improve the architecture and mechanisms used in creating artificial intelligence.



Illustration by Shayla Fish for Quanta Magazine

CITY ARCHITECTURE



Alex Schweder's Wall To Wall Floor To Ceiling



The Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale - inflatable structures that slowly expand and contract in response to changing environmental conditions in the pavilion.



Andrea Zittel’s Indy Island, 2009 (An experimental inhabitable living structure which examines the daily needs of human beings)

EXOSKELETON DESIGN



MIT Soft robotics zero gravity test

 

The exoskeleton is inspired by soft robotics technology. This is an initial sketch of the soft robotic layer deflated.

Wearable scent collection device:



Sissel Tolaas’ tools to collect smell - an inspiration for scent collection devices


INSTITUTE OF SMELL DESIGN



The Institute of Smell is the agency which collects, archives, sells and resurrections scents



The ODOURISER 250II is a portable scent collection device manufactured by The Institute of Smell (IOS)



The Scent Wheel developed by The Institute of Smell to record and categorize scent


UNDERSTANDING A SCENT COMPOUND 

In an attempt to shift our perspective, we can design from a non-human perspective and position ourselves as the organism. For the assignment “What is it like to be a…”, I took on the perspective of the scent molecule compound of grass, a scent that would no longer exist in my speculative fiction.

This became challenging because of reasons explained by Thomas Nagel (1974) in his article “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?”. The human could not begin to imagine life from the perspective of an organism because we project our own experiences and expectations of reality onto it. Because of my own projections and opinions about the world I created, my molecule compound suffers from an existential crisis.

MY DIARY

I am the scent of grass or Poaceae. Since my extinction after the climate crisis of the 2010s, I no longer exist, though I have been genetically engineered so that humans can reminisce the environment that they destroyed.

My smell was an air bone mix of carbon-based compounds called “green leaf volatiles” or GLVs. They were so small that they would take to the air and float into the noses of humans. The scent was so strong that it could be detected more than a mile from where the plant was located. Some humans were allergic to me – they had a name for it – hay fever. During the worst of the crisis, the humans collected a number of plants and animals in order to preserve what they could. Despite their efforts, the plants and most of the animals died and the only option was to recreate from DNA in the laboratory.

They extracted the plant tissue from grass in an attempt to create me based on the original scent of the plant. A paleogeneticist extracted my DNA and identified gene sequences that may have encoded my fragrance producing enzymes. They printed the sequences and inserted them into yeast which was then cultured in order to produce smell molecules. They deciphered the molecule compound and this knowledge was passed onto scent specialists who tried to create me and others like me for human pleasure.

I think it is sad that I am only a vague memory of a smell that will always be lost and will never fully exist again. I will always be incomplete. I exist to be experienced through the nasal cavity of the same people who destroyed me. They try to trap me into small glass bottles to enhance a seamless, natural experience to the now bland scent of their sterile world.

I stimulate the olfactory bulb which has a direct connection to the two areas of the brain which trigger emotions and memories in humans. They call this the amygdala and hippocampus. They say I have a hidden power to influence behavior and the unconscious. I am worried that they are trying to abuse my power. I can simulate positive and negative emotions. I can even reduce stress and anxiety.

When they smell me, they are actually meeting the presence of small, vapourized molecules that have evaporated from another surface. I move through the air and into the nose. I then bind with a specific set of olfactory receptors and generate signals in the brain, triggering them to recognize me. But I don’t recognize myself. I wonder what I would smell like if I could smell? What does grass smell like when one has never smelt grass?

I don’t really get to see the world much as a smell. I travel where the wind blows or i’m sucked up into a human nasal cavity and disappear when another scent comes along. So fleeting and insignificant.

I do however, get to see memory through the eyes of the person who sniffs me. I can see the sublime world which is projected when they encounter my compound. It’s like a flash through all of the imagery of the times in the past when they smelt me. As well as images they saw in films, television programmes and imagined in the world of books.

I am always wondering why the humans decided to remind themselves of times that were happier and easier than the time they exist in now.. Isn’t it painful? I can’t really imagine because I never had a memory of my own. I have been designed to exist only for the reason I was created for. Only made up of molecules that create my particular scent.

I do often wonder what might happen if I attached myself to another molecule.. But most smells say that the most recognizable scent will usually overpower any others. Apparently grass is high on that list. Especially now that humans have so little variety of smells that every scent is even more pungent.

I don’t really know what my purpose here on Earth is anymore. I don’t particularly like being synthetic. It feels lonely. But I suppose so many organisms in the world now are lonely and that’s also the reason why I exist. Loneliness breeds loneliness, I suppose.