arianna khmelniuk / zapah lab

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sensitive upgrade / museum scent collection

The side-specific artistic research about smells of art institutions was implemented in March 2017 in Atlanta. 

Blueprints of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta

we analyzed smells from the point of view of smell hunting in art spaces (which we often visited), and in our art studio/laboratory (mimicry and smellscape deconstruction). we were obsessed with the perception/discrimination of such information as smells, we are faced with "prejudices" that can be endless in the fixation of moments - health, weather, genetics, habits, gender, culture, race, age, weight, nationality... In fact, information from the environment (molecules) passes the "prejudice" filter and gets into virtual reality (our memory and emotions). and further in our personal olfactory universe, we are dealing with a "remix" that was created regardless of "our choice" (this is a big question, what does "our" and "choice" mean in this case a large number of restrictions and "preferences"). 

for this artistic research, we supplemented the theoretical framework from scientific articles (chemistry, biology, psychology, sociology, marketing) and applied the smellscape walks method to collect actual data about the surroundings. this entailed the question of analyzing the emotional landscape in the same way. thus, we analyze what we catch and feel in the three famous art institutions, approaching them and being inside them. 

installation of results of smellscape mapping by zapah lab took place at the conference critical juncture: the work of art (emory conference center cotel) in march 2017. in sensitive upgrade, we shared the results of smellscape experiments from three art institutions in the city of atlanta: the atlanta contemporary, the museum of design and the high museum of art. visitors were introduced to smells, inspiration, and formulas. 

work: three scents in perfume format/manifesto about radical attention to the sense of smell as an important part of the perception of reality and as an art medium.

emory university, atlanta, 2017