A guide to finding information about Olfactory Heritage and Olfactory Storytelling
Where to Start?
Odeuropa
The Odeuropa project – in which I played a managerial role – made a huge contribution to the field of Olfactory Heritage and Olfactory Museology. Odeuropa’s Olfactory Storytelling Toolkit: A ‘How-To’ Guide for Working with Smells in GLAMs and Heritage Institutions outlines the best practices and methods for using smells in the museum and beyond. This resource is a great place to start if you are looking to broaden your understanding of olfactory storytelling. It is free and available to download online in seconds. Although the resource is specifically for the sense of smell, I believe that many aspects are relevant to the other senses and their applicability to museum curation and education.
Did you know that the Olfactory Storytelling Toolkit also comes with 11 free resources created specifically to help you integrate olfactory storytelling into your own practice? These resources offer clear instructions for olfactory storytelling processes, from how to brief a perfumer on a historic scent, to evaluating that scent for its effectivity, to how to design an olfactory guided tour.
The Olfactory Heritage Toolkit is also greatly beneficial to our field. It is a perfect resource to help you understand what constitutes as Olfactory Heritage and why smells and smelling are important to the cultural identity of the world. The resource is free and can be downloaded here.
Odeuropa was a publicly funded project and therefore, all of the research conducted was formally reported to the EU via public deliverables. These deliverables provide key insights for olfactory heritage research and a great place to start if you are interested in the topic. Many of Odeuropa’s deliverables are openly available to read here.
Other Resources
The Internet of Senses Institute Podcast: Hosted by a variety of sensory researchers, this podcast features thought leaders and innovators working with all five classic senses: sight, sound, touch, taste and smell.
Perfume on the Radio: Hosted by the Institute for Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles, this podcast is a treasure trove for all smell and taste enthusiasts. The podcast features a variety of guests and speakers from all areas of expertise and is a fun and innovative way to delve into the world of smell and perfumery.
The Sensational Museum: A £1M, interdisciplinary project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). It aims to democratize the museum, making a multisensory experience that is welcoming to all.
The Smell Podcast: Hosted by Katie Boeteng, this podcast focuses on raising awareness around anosmia and other forms of chemosensory dysfunction.
The World Taste & Smell Association (WTSA): A non-profit organization that brings together sensory experts, advocates, and innovators that contribute to the science of taste and smell and its importance to everyday life.
Olfactory Education
The Institute for Art and Olfaction, Los Angeles: The IAO offers a variety of classes to educate about perfumery and other topics related to smell (and sometimes taste). Much of their programming is online, making it accessible internationally. You can find more information about their upcoming classes here. I also love the IAO’s page for “Like-Minded Organizations,” which can help you find organizations around the world dedicated to sensory education.
Knowing by Sensing: Knowing by Sensing: A course that was originally conceptualized by Caro Verbeek at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. The Odeuropa team created a new version of the course – “Knowing by Sensing: How to Teach the History of Smell” – which is fully available online through the American Historical Review Journal.
Osmotheque: The first perfume archive in the world where you can take classes and smelling sessions around the world of perfumery.
Senses Based Learning: A project dedicated to compiling all educational projects that are dedicated to gaining knowledge of the senses, through our senses. This valuable resource offers inspiration for others who would like to design their own multisensory curricula.
The Tisserand Institute: The Tisserand Institution offers online, evidence-based, aromatherapy training. Their programming includes classes about aromatic chemistry and safety.
What to Read?
On the Cultural History of Smell
Classen, Constance. “Museum manners: The sensory life of the early museum.” Journal of social history (2007): 895-914.
Classen, Constance, David Howes, and Anthony Synnott. Aroma: The cultural history of smell. Routledge, 2002.
Drobnick, Jim. “Volatile effects: Olfactory dimensions in art and architecture.” Berg, 2005, pp. 265–280.
Verbeek, Caro, and Cretien Van Campen. “Inhaling memories: Smell and taste memories in art, science, and practice.” The Senses and Society 8.2 (2013): 133-148.
On Olfactory Heritage:
Bembibre, Cecilia, et al. “The Olfactory Heritage Toolkit.” Odeuropa, 28. February 2024.
Bembibre, Cecilia, and Matija Strlič. “Smell of heritage: a framework for the identification, analysis and archival of historic odours.” Heritage Science 5, 2017, pp. 1-11.
Bembibre, Cecilia, and Matija Strlič. “From smelly buildings to the scented past: an overview of olfactory heritage.” Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 2022, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.718287.
On Applying Olfactory Museology and the Senses in the Museum:
Aggleton, John P., and Louise Waskett. “The ability of odours to serve as state‐dependent cues for real‐world memories: Can Viking smells aid the recall of Viking experiences?.” British Journal of Psychology 90.1 (1999): 1-7.
Eardley, Alison F., Claire Dobbin, Joselia Neves et al. “Hands-on, shoes-off: multisensory tools enhance family engagement within an art museum.” Visitor Studies, 21.1, 2018, pp. 79-97, https://doi.org/10.1080/10645578.2018.1503873.
Levent, Nina, and Alvaro Pascual-Leone, eds. The multisensory museum: Cross-disciplinary perspectives on touch, sound, smell, memory, and space. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014.
Verbeek, Caro. “Presenting volatile heritage: Two case studies on olfactory reconstructions in the museum.” Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation, History, Theory, and Criticism 13.2 (2016): 33-42.
On Heritage Scent Preservation (AKA How to Reconstruct Historic Scents for the Public):
Bembibre, Cecilia. “Archiving the intangible: preserving smells, historic perfumes and other ways of approaching the scented past.” The Smells and Senses of Antiquity in the Modern Imagination, 2021, pp. 155-73.
Bembibre, Cecilia, and Matija Strlič. “Preserving historic smells: The question of authenticity.” In Mediality of Smells, ed. Jean-Alexandre Perras and Erika Wicky, Oxford, 2021.
