Can our sense of smell mindfully be employed to strengthen our self awareness and sociality?

Smells of Trust is a research-based design project that explores the role and meaning of smelling in human relations. Can conscious smelling bring us closer together — not only spatially, but also emotionally? Through specially designed scent sets and objects, a ritualistic interaction with smells is created, a kind of aromatised self-reflection that explores personal meanings of smells and enhances one‘s own olfactory capacity. Through this action, we not only become more receptive to our consciously perceivable olfactory environment, but also to social smells that unconsciously trigger empathy and help us understand each other better. Smells of trust is exemplary for a series of scent sets conceptualising social relationships which serve as impulse generators. The scents that are used are as invisible, evanescent and subjective in their perception just as emotions they trigger. Insights of the research are documented in a written paper and find a sensual translation through specially designed objects. The work was presented to the public in the form of an interactive installation as part of the exhibition series graduiert ≈ präsentiert, organised by Burg Galerie im Volkspark Halle (Saale), Germany.