A Sense of Connection: Reclaiming Smell as a Medium for Multispecies Encounters in Contemporary Art

Within “naturalist ontology” (Descola 2005), modern Westerners have lost touch with the knowledge and relationships that smell enables—not only with other humans but also with other- than-humans. Yet, given that smell constitutes a shared biological ground for almost all life on Earth, learning to make a conscious, informed and de-centered use of this neglected sense towards non- human beings could foster meaningful encounters and help us rekindle our bonds with the biotic community. Several contemporary artists, such as Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Lindsey French, Carla Bengtson, Ai Hasegawa, Christy Gast, Yolanda Uriz, Allie E.S. Wist, Lowana Skye-Davies, Jake Eschelman, and Gosia Lehmann, are now engaging with scent as a medium for facilitating relational and sensory encounters beyond the human realm. Drawing from research in the fields of biosemiotics and chemical communication, their works encourage novel ways of knowing and interacting with other animals, plants or fungi—all acknowledged as relational "selves". This paper will particularly examine how these artworks resonate with the emerging field of (sensory) multispecies ethnography. Ultimately, such creative olfactory endeavours offer fresh ways of "making kin" and "becoming-with" (Haraway 2008) non-human others, challenging the ocularcentric bias of Modernity, the ontological divide between nature and culture, and the anthropocentric narratives of the Anthropocene. In their place, they inspire new possibilities for coexistence within what Glenn Albrecht envisions as the “Symbiocene” (2011).
Keywords: olfactory art ; biosemiotics ; multispecies ethnography ; sensory ecology ; interspecies communication

Stine Louring √ & Zakaria Djebbara √ (Aalborg University, Denmark)

What’s It like to Be a Sea Slug?

Historically, studies of light have focused on its nature as an immaterial material, perceived solely through photoreceptors in the eyes and transmitted to the brain. The sea slug Elysia Chlorotica can detect light through diffuse photosensitive cells across its body, not just through its simple eyes. Intriguingly, recent studies in photobiology have found results to, that light-activated receptors that mediate photoreception in the eye, are too expressed in epidermal skin cells of human. This link between skin and light detection has inspired research on how lighting design might support human perception. The investigation included poetic, ethnographic and sensor data retrieved from 111 people perceiving and moving in color luminated spaces. Data analyses revealed that both how people sensed their bodies and how they moved depended on the color of the lighting. These effects remained significant regardless of whether participants were blindfolded or not. This study thus points to a "blind spot" within our general understanding of the qualities and potential of light to influence our perception and behavior, by pointing to the entire human body, including skin, as a constant interface with the world. Drawing from neuroscientific perspectives on (human and non-human) brain-body-environment interconnectedness, this paper presents speculations on what non-human species like sea slugs can teach us about human perception and our being in the world. Although the question “what is it like to be a sea slug” remains unanswered, this study suggests that we may share more than expected.
Keywords: sensory ecology, light, perception, skin, sea slug