Inspired by the olfactory bravado of the original Smelling Committee, this interactive artwork is a goofy yet meaningful ecological awakening through the sensory exploration of our neighborhoods.
We led an historical simulacrum of the 1891 adventure in Williamsburg during the Conflux 2006 Festival for Psychogeography. The trek invited reflection upon the ephemeral, odiferous fabric of Brooklyn neighborhoods by actively smelling sites, discussing the neurological structure of smell, a natural history of odor, pollution and industry in Brooklyn, and personal smell stories.
The tour highlighted the tale of the nation’s largest urban oil spill, which continues to spread beneath Brooklyn after it occurred 50 years ago. The same oil refineries responsible for the toxic spill were those that inspired the first Smelling Committee in 1891 to sniff out the origins of the “fully developed stenches†that were wafting through their neighborhoods.
For the Lost and Found City [2007] exhibition at Storefront for Art & Architecture, we surveyed the Nolita & Lower East Side neighborhoods for odors of note, and developed an audio guide and map to aid Smelling Committee members in their own individual explorations of the odor textures in the neighborhood. References to an olfactory history of Manhattan abound in the audio guide, with particular attention given to the changing smells of the city’s waterfront.
