Olfactory heritage

Last updated

Olfactory heritage is an aspect of cultural heritage concerning smells that are meaningful to a community due to their connections with significant places, practices, objects or traditions, and can therefore be considered part of the cultural legacy for future generations. [1] [2]

Contents

Research in olfactory heritage involves and interacts with many disciplines such as history, heritage science, chemistry, archaeology, anthropology, art history, sensory science, olfactory museology and sensory geography. [3]

Documentation of olfactory heritage

Researcher sampling the volatile organic compounds of a historic book using solid phase microextraction at the Heritage Science Lab in University College London Institute for Sustainable Heritage. SPME UCL ISH.jpg
Researcher sampling the volatile organic compounds of a historic book using solid phase microextraction at the Heritage Science Lab in University College London Institute for Sustainable Heritage.

Olfactory heritage science is an emerging field of research, focused on the scientific techniques to analyse, document and preserve odours and the perspectives to understand their relevance.[ citation needed ]

Due to the intangible and ephemeral nature of odours, one of the main challenges of olfactory heritage science is developing methodologies for documenting and archiving the smells for the future. Several techniques are currently used, such as smellmapping, [4] combined methodology of ethnographic methods, [5] tracing sensory references in historic accounts [6] and odour wheels displaying chemical and sensory characterisation. [7] In addition, a framework for the systematic study of olfactory heritage was proposed in 2017, aiming to document both the chemical properties and the human perception of smells of cultural importance. [8]

Preservation of olfactory heritage

In addition to documenting contemporary smells that will be future heritage, an aspect of olfactory heritage involves scent preservation, often focusing on the smells of the past. [9]

Protection of olfactory heritage

There are currently no international guidelines for the protection of olfactory heritage. In heritage guidelines, 'the smells and sounds associated with the place and its use' are understood to contribute to cultural significance [10] and should be considered when defining the character of a historic area because they affect our experience of places. [11] In this sense, the smells of heritage places can be considered part of their identity.

Examples of olfactory heritage

The smell of old books and historic libraries has been identified as of cultural significance, with several projects documenting the scent of particular collections and spaces such as the Morgan Library & Museum, [17] the Wren Library at St Paul's Cathedral [18] and books from the Bodleian library. [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Council on Monuments and Sites</span> Organization

The International Council on Monuments and Sites is a professional association that works for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places around the world. Now headquartered in Charenton-le-Pont, France, ICOMOS was founded in 1965 in Warsaw as a result of the Venice Charter of 1964, and offers advice to UNESCO on World Heritage Sites.

<i>Perfume</i> (novel) 1985 novel by Patrick Süskind

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a 1985 literary historical fantasy novel by German writer Patrick Süskind. The novel explores the sense of smell and its relationship with the emotional meanings that scents may have.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Docking theory of olfaction</span>

The docking theory of olfaction proposes that the smell of an odorant molecule is due to a range of weak non-covalent interactions between the odorant [a ligand] and one or more G protein-coupled odorant receptors. These include intermolecular forces, such as dipole-dipole and Van der Waals interactions, as well as hydrogen bonding. More specific proposed interactions include metal-ion, ion-ion, cation-pi and pi-stacking. Interactions can be influenced by the hydrophobic effect. Conformational changes can also have a significant impact on interactions with receptors, as ligands have been shown to interact with ligands without being in their conformation of lowest energy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural landscape</span> Landscape, which is permanently embossed by humans

Cultural landscape is a term used in the fields of geography, ecology, and heritage studies, to describe a symbiosis of human activity and environment. As defined by the World Heritage Committee, it is the "cultural properties [that] represent the combined works of nature and of man" and falls into three main categories:

  1. "a landscape designed and created intentionally by man"
  2. an "organically evolved landscape" which may be a "relict landscape" or a "continuing landscape"
  3. an "associative cultural landscape" which may be valued because of the "religious, artistic or cultural associations of the natural element."

The odour of sanctity, according to the Catholic Church, is commonly understood to mean a specific scent that emanates from the bodies of saints, especially from the wounds of stigmata. These saints are called myroblytes while the exudation itself is referred to as myroblysia or myroblytism.

<i>Burra Charter</i>

The Burra Charter is a document published by the Australian ICOMOS which defines the basic principles and procedures to be followed in the conservation of Australian heritage places. The Charter was first endorsed in 1979 as an Australian adaptation of the Venice Charter, but with the introduction of a new analytical conservation model of heritage assessment that recognised forms of cultural heritage beyond tangible and physical forms. The Charter was the first national heritage document to replace the Venice Charter as the basis of national heritage practice. The Charter has been revised on four occasions since 1979, and has been internationally influential in providing standard guidelines for heritage conservation practice.

Australia ICOMOS is a peak cultural heritage conservation body in Australia. It is a branch of the United Nations-sponsored International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), a non-government professional organisation promoting expertise in the conservation of place-based cultural heritage. Its secretariat is based at the Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia and the Pacific at Deakin University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Odor</span> Volatile chemical compounds perceived by the sense of smell

An odor or odour is caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds that are generally found in low concentrations that humans and many animals can perceive via their sense of smell. An odor is also called a "smell" or a "scent", which can refer to either a pleasant or an unpleasant odor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sense of smell</span> Sense that detects smells

The sense of smell, or olfaction, is the special sense through which smells are perceived. The sense of smell has many functions, including detecting desirable foods, hazards, and pheromones, and plays a role in taste.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smelly socks</span> Clothing

Smelly socks are socks that have acquired a strong odour due to prolonged wearing. Their odour, which is complex and remains the object of study, is a mixture of ammonia, fatty acids, and lactic acid.

Odour is sensory stimulation of the olfactory membrane of the nose by a group of molecules. Certain body odours are connected to human sexual attraction. Humans can make use of body odour subconsciously to identify whether a potential mate will pass on favourable traits to their offspring. Body odour may provide significant cues about the genetic quality, health and reproductive success of a potential mate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Values (heritage)</span>

The values embodied in cultural heritage are identified in order to assess significance, prioritize resources, and inform conservation decision-making. It is recognised that values may compete and change over time, and that heritage may have different meanings for different stakeholders.

The Principles for the Conservation of Heritage Sites in China is a conservation charter promulgated in 2000 by China ICOMOS with the approval of National Cultural Heritage Administration. It provides a methodological approach to the conservation of cultural heritage sites in China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital scent technology</span>

Digital scent technology is the engineering discipline dealing with olfactory representation. It is a technology to sense, transmit and receive scent-enabled digital media. The sensing part of this technology works by using olfactometers and electronic noses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olfactory art</span>

Olfactory art is an art form that uses scents as a medium. Olfactory art includes perfume as well as other applications of scent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scent rubbing</span> Behaviour where a mammal rubs its body against an object in their environment

Scent rubbing is a behavior where a mammal rubs its body against an object in their environment, sometimes in ones covered with strongly odored substances. It is typically shown in carnivores, although many mammals exhibit this behavior. Lowering shoulders, collapsing the forelegs, pushing forward and rubbing the chin, temples, neck, or back is how this act is performed. A variety of different odors can elicit this behavior including feces, vomit, fresh or decaying meat, insecticide, urine, repellent, ashes, human food and so on. Scent rubbing can be produced by an animal smelling novel odors, which include manufactured smells such as perfume or motor oil and carnivore smells including feces and food smells.

Osmodrama: from the Greek osme (smell) and the ancient Greek dráma (plot), describes the performance of time-based olfactory art using the experimental scent-playing ‘organ’ Smeller 2.0, as well as the festival Osmodrama – Storytelling with Scents.

Scent preservation, also called smell archiving, is the practice of heritage conservation applied to odor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olfactory language</span> Language associated with the sense of smell

Olfactory language refers to language associated with the sense of smell. It involves the naming and categorisation of odours by humans according to each odour's perceived source or attributes. The study of olfactory language is part of the field of linguistics and is distinct from the study of semiochemical communication, which involves communication between organisms using chemical substances detected through olfaction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olfactic communication</span>

Olfactic communication is a channel of nonverbal communication referring to the various ways people and animals communicate and engage in social interaction through their sense of smell. Our human olfactory sense is one of the most phylogenetically primitive and emotionally intimate of the five senses; the sensation of smell is thought to be the most matured and developed human sense.

References

  1. Verbeek, Caro (2016). "Presenting volatile heritage: two case studies on olfactory reconstructions in the museum". Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation, History, Theory, and Criticism. 13 (2): 33–42. doi:10.5749/futuante.13.2.0033. S2CID   165047764.
  2. Trancozo Trevino, Miguel. "The people trying to save scents from extinction". BBC Future.
  3. Bembibre, Cecilia; Strlič, Matija (2022). "From Smelly Buildings to the Scented Past: An Overview of Olfactory Heritage". Frontiers in Psychology. 12: 718287. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.718287 . PMC   8831540 . PMID   35153887.
  4. McLean, Kate (2017). "Smellmap: Amsterdam—Olfactory Art and Smell Visualization". Leonardo. 50 (1): 92–93. doi:10.1162/LEON_a_01225. S2CID   57571346.
  5. Davis, L; Thys-Şenocak, L (2017). "Heritage and scent: research and exhibition of Istanbul's changing smellscapes". International Journal of Heritage Studies. 23 (8): 723–741. doi:10.1080/13527258.2017.1317646. S2CID   152154092.
  6. Smith, Mark (2014). The smell of battle, the taste of siege: a sensory history of the civil war. Oxford: OUP. ISBN   978-0199759989.
  7. Noppeney, C. "Smelly wheels: in search of alternatives". Scent Culture Institute blog, Smelling in Culture, Business & Society. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  8. Bembibre, Cecilia; Strlič, Matija (7 April 2017). "Smell of heritage: a framework for the identification, analysis and archival of historic odours". Heritage Science. 5 (1). doi: 10.1186/s40494-016-0114-1 .
  9. Jasper, A; Otero-Pailos, J (2016). "Smell and Preservation". Future Anterior. 13 (2): iii–vii.
  10. Burra Charter. "The Australia ICOMOS Charter for Places of Cultural Significance" (PDF). Australia International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).
  11. "Understanding Place Historic Area Assessments". Historic England. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  12. "環境省_かおり風景100選の選定について". www.env.go.jp. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  13. "UNESCO - The skills related to perfume in Pays de Grasse: the cultivation of perfume plants, the knowledge and processing of natural raw materials, and the art of perfume composition". ich.unesco.org.
  14. Touma, Rafqa (2021-08-26). "Melbourne campaign to recognise the smell of Vegemite for its heritage value". The Guardian . Retrieved 2021-08-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. Guy, Jack (2021-01-22). "France has passed a law protecting the sounds and smells of the countryside". CNN .
  16. Fraigneau, Victor (2020). "Towards a Sensory Patrimoine? Atmospheric, Psychological and Ecopolitical Issues on Smell and Sound Identity". Proceedings of the 4th International Congress on Ambiances, Alloaesthesia: Senses, Inventions, Worlds. 13 (2): 202–207. doi:10.48537/hal-03220351.
  17. Kennedy, Randy (3 March 2017). "What's That Smell? Rare Books and Artifacts From a 1906 Library". The New York Times.
  18. Armitstead, Claire (7 April 2017). "Can you judge a book by its odour?". The Guardian.
  19. Bruxelles, Simon de (19 April 2020). "'Newly-pressed sheets and old socks': The distinctive smells of antique books recreated for the first time". The Telegraph.