NOS-HS Exploratory Workshops in

Olfactory Cultural Studies

Workshop 2, 15-17 April 2024, Copenhagen, Denmark

Call for papers and participation

With support from NordForsk, we are happy to announce a call for papers and participation in an exploratory three-day workshop in “olfactory cultural studies”. This is the second workshop in a series of three independent yet related workshops across different Nordic countries, with a general objective to develop and investigate methodologies to explore how olfactory phenomena are conceptualised and contribute to meaning-making. The final remaining workshop will be organised in Finland in 2025, with a call to be released in due course. This series of workshops centre on the significance of odours and the meanings ascribed to them, both in different physical environments and in media representations, thus complementing multisensory, multimodal cultural studies. Emphasis is laid on the role of olfactory phenomena in the construction of social and cultural identities. To address the olfactory cultural dynamics at stake, the workshops are guided by three main research questions:

a) How are different environmental odours made meaningful?
b) Howareolfactoryphenomenaconceptualisedandrepresentedinartandthemedia? c) How do olfactory phenomena participate in the construction of social and cultural

identities?

Workshop

The workshops are designed to combine ethnographic, experimental, and textual research. The Danish workshop is structured as follows (preliminary plans subject to change):

Day 1: Welcome and seminar session with participant paper presentation on the theme of “smell as knowledge-making”. Ethnographic exercise: “urban olfactowalk” to be conducted in a select environment and followed by methodological and theoretical reflection. Evening experimental exercise using specific examples of food products (e.g., wine, cheese) as the basis for a comparative examination of how specific odours can convey abstract non-nutritional knowledge such as terroir and production methods.

Day 2: Travel to off-site retreat. A seminar session with participants’ presentations on the theme of “technologies of art and mediation”, putting emphasis on how smell and smell concepts can be conveyed via different media (e.g., text, drawings, sound, performances, etc.), followed by methodological and theoretical reflection. Afternoon olfactowalk co-creation exercise.

Day 3: Ethnographic exercise: “spring-time olfactowalk”, to be conducted in a select environment and followed by methodological and theoretical reflection. Closing remarks and return to Copenhagen.

Submissions

We hereby cordially ask all interested individuals to submit a paper proposal of 2000-3000 words no later than 15 December 2023, via email to olfactory.cultures@gmail.com. The proposals form the basis for the seminar sessions and therefore should address its themes (“smell as knowledge-making” or “technologies of art and mediation”). The proposals should be in PDF format, appended with a one-page CV. While both single- and multi-author papers are welcome, only one presenting author can register for the workshop (a second presenting author is allowed on a case- by-case basis, if the authors can justify added value to the presentation).

Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 9 January 2024. There is a limited number of seats in the workshop, and all participants are required to take part in all exercises and sessions. If selection is required due to the number of proposals, priority will be given to those who i) reside in the Nordic region as defined by NordForsk, and ii) address the themes of the workshop. Participation in the workshop is limited to those with an accepted paper presentation.

Travel and accommodation

The physical location of the workshop is in central Copenhagen followed by a 1.5 day off-site retreat. During the retreat, the organisers will cover one-night accommodation, local transport and comestibles.

While there is no cost to register for the workshop, participants are expected to cover their own travel to Copenhagen plus accommodations in Copenhagen. We hope to be able to offer financial support in terms of hotel vouchers for a limited number of participants, with priority given to early career researchers who do not have access to institutional support.

For further information regarding the other workshops or any other related matter, please do not hesitate to contact the organisers at olfactory.cultures@gmail.com.

Organisers

PI Professor Antti-Ville Villén, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland (Visiting Fellow, University of Cambridge, UK)

Associate Professor Qian Janice Wang, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Associate Professor Erik Cyrus Fooladi, Volda University College, Norway Professor Anu Hopia, University of Turku, Finland

Call for papers and participation

With support from NordForsk, we are happy to announce a call for papers and participation in an exploratory three-day workshop in “olfactory cultural studies”. This is the first workshop in a series of three independent yet related workshops across different Nordic countries, with a general objective to develop and investigate methodologies to explore how olfactory phenomena are conceptualised and contribute to meaning-making. The remaining two workshops will be organised in Denmark and in Finland in 2024, with calls to be released in due course. The workshops centre on the significance of odours and the meanings ascribed to them, both in different physical environments and in media representations, thus complementing multisensory, multimodal cultural studies. Emphasis is laid on the role of olfactory phenomena in the construction of social and cultural identities. To address the olfactory cultural dynamics at stake, the workshops are guided by three main research questions:

a) How are different environmental odours made meaningful?

b) How are olfactory phenomena conceptualised and represented in art and the media?

c) How do olfactory phenomena participate in the construction of social and cultural identities?

Workshop

The workshops are designed to combine ethnographic, experimental and textual research. The first workshop is structured as follows:

Day 1: ethnographic exercise: “marine summer-time olfactowalk”, to be conducted in a select environment and followed by methodological and theoretical reflection.

Day 2: experimental exercise at the Atlanterhavsparken Aquarium and Marine Science Museum in Ålesund, on the theme “wake up and smell the fish”. The exercise seeks to share and develop knowledge by exploring aesthetic and analytic sense experiences in an encounter between researchers and museum communicators. The exercise draws perspectives from a range of disciplines to highlight the potential for the sensory perception of smell in the domain of the marine.

Day 3: a seminar session with participants’ presentations on the theme of roles of smell (olfaction) in context-based communication and learning, followed by methodological and theoretical reflection. As opposed to rigid disciplinary thinking, the point of departure here is “what sensory perceptions and domains of knowledge can, or must, I rely on in this situation?”

Submissions

We hereby cordially ask all interested individuals to submit a proposal of up to 3,000 words no later than 1 May 2023, via email to olfactory.cultures@gmail.com. The proposals form the basis for the seminar session (Day 3) and therefore should address its theme (context-based olfactory communication and learning). The proposals should be in PDF format, appended with a one-page CV. 

Notifications of acceptance will be sent by the end of May 2023. There is a limited amount of seats in the workshop, and all participants are required to take part in all exercises and sessions. If selection is required due to the amount of proposals, priority will be given to those who i) reside in the Nordic region as defined by NordForsk, and ii) address the theme of Day 3. 

Travel and accommodation

The physical location of the workshop is on the island of Runde along the western coast of Norway (www.runde.no), with a day-trip to the Atlanterhavsparken Aquarium and Marine Science Museum in Ålesund (Day 2; https://en.atlanterhavsparken.no). 

The organisers will cover accommodation, local transport and comestibles. Accommodation in Runde is in two-bedroom flats with shared bathrooms. Travel bursaries of up to €500 are available in exchange of receipts for a limited number of participants, with priority given to early career researchers who do not have access to institutional support.

For further information regarding the other two workshops or any other related matter, please do not hesitate to contact the organisers at olfactory.cultures@gmail.com.

Organisers

PI Professor Antti-Ville Villén, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland (Visiting Fellow, University of Cambridge, UK)

Associate Professor Erik Cyrus Fooladi, Volda University College, Norway

Professor Anu Hopia, University of Turku, Finland

Associate Professor Qian Janice Wang, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

The senses work together in multifaceted and even dissonant ways. However, recognition of this multiplicity has been stymied by the emphasis on the “prereflective unity” of the senses within the phenomenology of perception, and the focus on harmonious integration within cognitive neuroscience. The collision of the senses is inherent to Marshall McLuhan’s notion of the “collideroscope” of the sensorium. With this conference, we seek to explore the potentialities of this conceptualization.

In the same spirit, the conference will welcome contributions relying on differing disciplinary perspectives. These perspectives may complement one another (multidisciplinary research) or they may coalesce (interdisciplinary research). “Cross-disciplinary research” is the expression we prefer – “crossing” in the sense of blending, but also of confronting.

The aim of the conference is to highlight the relevance of the emergent understanding of the collision of the senses to thinking about some burning issues of our times:

• As regards ecology, we submit that one way to help offset climate catastrophe is to cultivate an ecology of the senses: rebalancing the senses can contribute to rebalancing our relationship to the environment. For this, we need to expand our sensorium and be more attentive to the existence and perceptions – or sentient capacities – of all beings, human and non-human, including matter.

• As regards the economy, we submit that the upsurge in sensory marketing, trademarking sensations (colour, sound, gesture), and the coming to be of “the experience economy,” all shortchange our senses in the interests of capital accumulation. We stand for the liberation of the senses.

• As regards aesthetics, we conceive of the aesthetic as grounded in passionate participation rather than disinterested contemplation, and experience instead of judgment. We recant Kant, and welcome interventions by artists interested in the potential of immersive media (intermedia and performance art) and blurring genres.

For more information: https://www.sensorystudies.org/uncommon-senses-iv-sensory-ecologies-economies-and-aesthetics/

Recent archaeological, historical, and ethnographical research has witnessed a phenomenon that can be called a sensory turn or even a sensual revolution with a growing number of publications aimed at sketching the sensory landscapes of past societies. In these recent studies, several methods to trace the ephemeral and already vanished sensory encounters have been developed from the more traditional approaches to more experimental ones.

The workshop Making sense of sensory studies aims to bring together the trailblazers of sensory studies in social sciences, archaeology, and history, for sharing the best methodological developments in recent sensory scholarship.

For more information: https://aias.au.dk/events/making-sense-of-sensory-studies

They invite abstracts for 20-minute papers in the field of medieval sensory studies for the international workshop ‘The Senses: Present Issues, Past Perspectives.’ The workshop is organised by Prof. Annette Kern-Stähler (University of Bern, Switzerland), Prof. Elizabeth Robertson (University of Glasgow, UK), and Dr. des. Laura Bernardazzi (University of Bern, Switzerland) and is funded by the Congressi Stefano Franscini, Monte Verità, Switzerland, and the University of Bern.

For more information: https://www.themedievalacademyblog.org/call-for-papers-10/