Smell and intangible cultural heritage

The three-year project explores smell as a cultural phenomenon and the possibilities of its use in museums in Slovenia. The smell does not exist on its own but is always linked to olfactory habits, practices, beliefs, prejudices, and the socialisation of the sense. The smell is neither socioculturally nor temporally universal, but it is crucial to social relations and shapes cultural identity and moral values. Therefore, the project investigates: 1) The types of olfactory cultural heritage 2) The concept of smell as it is verbalised in language, illustrating moral, racial, or social prejudices 3) The olfactory imaginary in the history of medicine, philosophy, and religion 4) The cultivation of the sense of smell 5) Smell as an expression of social prejudice, stigma, and discrimination 6) The application of olfactory science in museums 7) The impact of loss of smell on quality of life. Written material with olfactory historical and literary references, museum objects, and contemporary olfactory preferences are the primary sources for examining Slovenians' ideas about smell. A large knowledge deficit about how odours are recorded, described, rendered, and communicated in relation to historical objects necessitates such research. The olfactory qualities of historic artefacts and sites are not routinely researched or documented, let alone preserved and protected. As a result, little or nothing is known about historic smells. Our research on historic smells demonstrates the wealth of information that smells contain and their value to our intangible cultural heritage. The perception of smells is influenced by a variety of elements, including culture and historical period. Therefore, documenting smells at a particular time helps with their interpretation and future accessibility. Innovative methods combining anthropology, history, chemistry, medicine, and computer science are used to capture olfactory perceptions that go beyond physical experience and are deeply rooted in social and cultural concepts of smell. This raises awareness of an aspect of intangible cultural heritage that has been overlooked. As the field of olfactory research grows rapidly, this project addresses perhaps the most difficult sense to analyse. By researching smells from the past we hope to revive and reconstruct a part of our cultural heritage. In collaboration with the museum curators, the revival of history through the use of technological advances and innovations in lighting, design, odour control and olfactory marketing will take visitors on a multi-sensory journey into the past in an interactive exhibition. The exhibition, based on chemical, cultural and historical research of selected museum objects, will lead museum visitors to new sensory destinations of sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. By understanding the close connection between smells and the limbic system in our brains that controls memories and emotions, memory is always linked to specific smells. By incorporating smells that semantically match the former environment of the artefacts, museum visitors are transformed from passive passersby to heritage enthusiasts. In the museum context, smell plays the role of a medium that evokes memories, creates a pleasant or unpleasant mood, and stimulates discussion. In addition to analysing objects and preparing a museum exhibition, the researchers, all experts in tangible and intangible cultural heritage, address the current general lack of knowledge about the social and cultural role of smells in everyday life through scholarly publications, public lectures, and professional conferences. Knowledge of how odours affect our lives has become very important since the global pandemic of coronavirus (2020-), in which millions of people temporarily lost their ability to smell properly. Since most of the researchers are also university professors, it is natural to share the knowledge with students.