Scenting Heritage: Real-Time Olfactory Augmentation
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Date
2025
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Eurographics Association
Abstract
This paper outlines and reflects on our work to create a digital-olfactive experience via the conceptual and technical elaboration of an interactive installation, the Terapixel Panorama - centred on the 1.6 terapixel digital twin of the Panorama of the Battle of Murten, an iconic, 1000m2 panorama painting - in what is the first-ever use of real time and dynamic olfactory augmentation in the cultural heritage domain. The paper will cover both technical and curatorial/interpretive dimensions of the work. We outline the genesis and implementation of the digital twin's smellscape, beginning with the identification of smells that evoke both the material object and the painting's visual narrative. This was followed by a precursory exercise in 'olfactive' thinking in which narrative approaches to the panorama were considered through the lens of smell. This thinking culminated in the creation of a series of smell maps which encode our vision for the panorama's organic smell universe and which we use to technically integrate synthetic smell information into the twin's digital file. By endowing the digital material with some of the original object's multisensory, and, in this case, olfactive life, we shift away from the purely visual towards a form of visual and visceral realism in which the object's olfactive materiality and multisensorial narrativity are formally encoded.
Description
CCS Concepts: Hardware → Emerging interfaces; Human-centered computing → User interface design; Interaction design theory, concepts and paradigms; Applied computing → Media arts; Fine arts
@inproceedings{10.2312:dh.20253086,
booktitle = {Digital Heritage},
editor = {Campana, Stefano and Ferdani, Daniele and Graf, Holger and Guidi, Gabriele and Hegarty, Zackary and Pescarin, Sofia and Remondino, Fabio},
title = {{Scenting Heritage: Real-Time Olfactory Augmentation}},
author = {Ramogida, Tonia and Kenderdine, Sarah},
year = {2025},
publisher = {The Eurographics Association},
ISBN = {978-3-03868-277-6},
DOI = {10.2312/dh.20253086}
}