Smellscapes have become increasingly precarious as rising temperatures and anthropogenic pollutants alter the composition of air, water, and soil to radically disturb ecosystems. This destruction, arising in part from the current climate crisis, is often unevenly distributed and may go unnoticed due to its slow, elusive nature. Through site-responsive processes such as smellwalking, 'Precarious Smellscapes' investigates how an engaged, situated arts practice was evolved to strengthen empathetic connections with ecologies of more-than-human worlds. This resulted in a sensory dining experience, 'Olfactivisms', a curated exhibition, 'Olfactory Ecologies', and a time capsule of collated scents and imagery, 'Smellcapsule2122', which accompanies this thesis.
Full text: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/240361/
Failing to appreciate the importance of reciprocity between species and smellscapes demonstrates a dangerous disregard for the lungs of the Earth that support all aerobic life and as an aerobic species, humans are particularly subject to olfactory risks. In contrast, Indigenous people have been using smell to tune in to the environment throughout history, for example, the Desana tribe of the Colombian Amazon Rainforest use olfactory cues to navigate and mark out space:
"…when travelling to other regions, the Desana continually sniff the air and comment upon the distinct odours of the different tribes that inhabit those regions. In fact, the Desana call themselves wira, which means ‘people who smell’ and refers to both the emphasis they place on olfaction as a way of knowing, and their particular tribal body odour" (Classen et al., 1994, p. 99).
(Davies, 2023, p. 18)
