Winter Smellwalk in Kyiv

On December 25th, 2016 a group of 13 people smellwalked Kyiv for two, frozen, hours.
Time: 1300h – 1500h
Temperature: High 1°C
Wind: W – 8.7mph

Speculating that future generations will foreground alternative sensory modalities as ways of knowing, this work treats smells as affordances of visual perception, equally facts of the environment and of human behaviour. This work is a mapping of ephemeral information along a route of woven, olfactory trails.

Main image maps the smellwalk, which started at Maidan, and includes an expanded view of 7 individual trails showing smell sources and projected smell shapes in the light, westerly winter wind. Each of the 7 smellwalkers is represented by a colour indicative to them of the Kyiv smellscape. Every smell that appears is listed in the outer ring of the map. Lower image follows the cumulative pulse points of smell detection along the route as it unfolds in space, time, and mode of smelling. Concentrations occur in confined spaces and at stopping points.
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Date: 2017
Media & size: Digital print, 1000mm x 1000mm

Exhibited:
2019 – “You are here” on tour curated by Paula Williams
2016 – “You are here” at National Library of Scotland curated by Paula Williams
2014 – “Atlas” at The Jam Factory, Oxford, UK curated by J.P. Reid
2011 – Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show
2011 – Edinburgh International Science Festival

Published:
2012 – The Commons
2016 – “Mind the Map: Illustrated Maps and Cartography”, pub. Gestalten
2018 – “Cartography”, by Ken Field, pub. ESRI Press