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Sniffing Out the Differences

Sniffing out the differences is a series of installations that questions our identity in this globalized world through the medium of multisensory experiences, with olfaction playing a leading role. The project explored smell as an interactive medium to build narratives and was rooted in the belief that cultural exchanges between different South Asian communities could be traced through the journey of scents. We collected scents from all over India for this project.

Olfaction, as a key cultural descriptor, can be easily felt by someone coming from outside the culture. Whether it is the spicy scent of a bazaar or the tranquil smell of petrichor, most people can relate to their backgrounds with certain smells. Research into these personal olfactory associations, cultural sensibilities, and rising xenophobic tendencies have led us to build culture-specific olfactory experiences. 

Odors are strongly associated with emotionality and evocativeness. In many aspects, odors have been shown to even supersede music, a widely considered emotional stimulus, as emotion-evoking memory cues. The temporal unfolding of the event is primarily emotional, followed by a contextual understanding which enables us to produce a truly emotional reaction from the user. The mechanism of building an episodic odor memory involves using a variety of stimuli, including odor, geared towards producing a specific user reaction.

Our interest in olfaction as an interaction medium led us to conceptualize Sniffing out the differences as a series of installations that act as a dialog between our identities in today's globalized world in which we hold more than one, articulated through smell and pattern visualization. It questions how our life experiences have impacted our current identities and points out the commonly unnoticed differences caused by them. It further lets the audience experience a culture with its distinct smells and interact with it, thereby making sense of that culture.

The installations built on this theme are titled Jallianwala Bagh, Identity stories, Mir Abdul Attarwala & Xeno 500

Jallianwala Bagh

When humans undergo traumatic experiences it leads them to catharsis and often with this they forge a new identity. Jallianwala Bagh, a massacre, a tragic event that shook every human and particularly the people under the Raj. Its aftermath was that it led them to question their identity which fuelled the national freedom struggle. This interactive installation explores this historical narrative and remediates the story through smell and portrays the trauma felt by people. It shows how people in power reduce others and strip them off the personhood. By retelling this narrative it draws a parallel and wonders about similar events in current times. It further lets the audience experience how design plays an important role today in creating strong narratives for change focusing on olfaction and sound in particular.

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Find more details here.

Identity Stories

Chronicle of a  life of everyday Indians and their journey - showing how their identities and culture emerge through inclusion rather than exclusion. This interactive biographical installation explains the stories of its two protagonists through mapping their experience into scents. It talks about how new identities emerge with mobility and new distinct patterns that are created. It is a dialog of identities in today’s globalised world  where we hold more than one, articulated in smell and sound. It further lets the audience experience a culture with its distinct smells and interact with it, making sense of that culture.

 

Find more details here.

Mir Abdul Attarwala

Creating awareness and empathy about culture, issues  and people of war-torn Kashmir. The project places the user in an environment which when explored describes the deep divisions and the everyday issues faced by people in Kashmir. It does this through a mix of olfactory, visual, and poetic responses to user interactions.

The story:

“Amidst the surrounding beauty and conflict of Kashmir, a young apprentice learning the craft of perfumery tries to contain his feelings in perfume (attar). The perfume, some good some bad, talk about the tales that emerge in any conflict zone.”

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Find more details here.

Xeno 500

A futuristic take on society and xenophobia. Set in an alternative timeline of India, this exhibit portrays a situation in which xenophobia is treated as a social evil and a critical condition. The belief in this new India is that contribution and cooperation by all citizens is what leads to the maximum development of the urban atmosphere. The mandate is to identify xenophobic individuals and help them recover from this primitive human condition but by using despotic methods, portraying the inherent hypocrisy of the unchallenged narrative.

Exhibitions

Sniffing out the differences is run as a collective with its members residing in India and the USA and led by Kadambari Sahu. All team members are passionate creatives who have full-time jobs elsewhere as designers, artists, architects, engineers, and product managers. Every Sniffing out the differences project is a true team effort - team members spend weekends, holidays, and available time building and creating these projects. 
We come together digitally and physically to create multi-sensory installations consisting of novel interfaces that use the unusual medium of smell along with sensor technology to narrate socially relevant stories for today. Each project is based on rigorous research, conception, and experimentation. We started this when we received funding from Prince Claus Fund and British Council in 2018 and we completed our first few projects which were exhibited in the State Gallery of Art, Hyderabad, India in December 2018. After this, we were further supported by ValueLabs and many other Individuals who became team members or volunteered with us during the exhibition. The project has been very well received internationally and has been featured at many prestigious forums.​

To know more about the project and read about the individual installations please visit the project website.

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