The Scent of a City
Have you ever visited a city and noticed that the air seems cleaner? Or perhaps that it smells different? An English artist, Kate McLean, is creating “Smell Maps” of different cities. Her project launched when she began looking for the answer to the question, “What does home smell like?” Her first “Smell Map” was of Edinburgh, Scotland. She collected commentary from local residents about native smells and realized that scent is often linked to things like wind direction, rain, or changes in temperature. In her smell map of Brooklyn, New York, a resident stated that the streets smelt like “shattered dreams.” She proceeded to ask other residents what they thought that distinct smell actually was, they replied with “walking out of a bar with that typical stench of beer and cigarettes.” Scent is different for everyone and McLean’s maps can tell us a lot about our own unconscious distinction of scent. Check out more of her project, maybe there’s a smellmap of where you’re from!
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