(Archive) An Olfactory Biopolitics

How smell is a powerful tool in design and behavioural economics allowing for unique and serendipitous design interventions.

This project was part of DDW 2020

Smell samples taken in Kenya — © Coltrane McDowell

This project is part of: Graduation Show - Social Design

The design interventions took place in my home town of Nairobi. I worked with alcohol distillers in the lower-income settlement of Mathare, and rose farmers who were affected by the global pandemic. Together we produced fragrance tests for the precursor of a locally fabricated perfume.

This extended research project examined how the use of smell as a means of control or behavior modification comes under the notion of biopolitics. I produced a series of videos, they each act as documentation and a meditation on the potential use of smell

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