Snail Stories is a research-driven design project that centers on snails, exploring life through their perspective. By delving into the perceptual reality of snails, the project sparks fresh insights and reimagines societal contexts from an entirely new vantage point.Through letters and tactile artefacts, the imagination of an alternative reality is brought to life.

How does the snail experience the world and what would our interpersonal communication look like if we followed the snail’s sensory hierarchy: almost blind and without the possibility to express ourselves verbally — but with a strong sense of smell, taste and touch? With the loss of auditory and visual distance, we would be forced into communication that invades our privacy or even our bodies by touching, tasting and smelling them. Would there still be visual expression if we could only see shadows? Would we use smells to influence others? Would this conditional sensual proximity connect us not only physically but also emotionally?

What would happen if every human being, like the snail, possessed both sexual organs? Or if we ate our immediate environment while inhabiting it?

Do you remember the first time we met and how distant, stiff and formal I was? I still recall how desperate I tried to hide my emotions and thoughts. I spent a lot of time on preparation. Already in the morning I started to cover myself in layers of anti-transpiration–spray and powdered my whole body with smell neutralization. My costume was jagged, making my silhouette seem taller. Of course you should never trust your eyes, but there is always this first impression. My intension was to get control over my appearance — no weakness, no emotions.

Facing your pureness was almost shocking: Honest in your shape, smell and, what I later found out, also in your taste. Nothing was hidden, nothing added. No secrets, nothing fake and above all: no need to.

It was clear what you wanted and easy to shape our compromise, that we later glazed. I‘m still grateful that I met you — confident in your being and open enough to become my mentor.

One day there was this short moment, when I understood how little seperates us from being friends or partners. Words cannot express what caused this situation. Everything between us seemed to be different. There was this new smell. I can‘t remember ever thinking about your body odour - it always seemed unimposing, neutral and kind of familiar. Now there was this change. Was it still you? It was not that you lost your smell, it was more that something was added. Your body felt similar but in the same way different in its tension. As if you were evaporating, odour was flowing in increasingly more intensive waves out of your skin and filled the air. Your odour was sweet and salty at the same time, kind of tasty and tempting, made me want to come closer and breath in deeply, let the aeriform image of you enter my body - and it screamed:

I WANT YOU! I‘LL SHOOT YOU!
SO YOU WILL BE MINE AND I‘LL BE ONLY YOURS!

Hit by your dart, I understood, that there was no way out, but this was what I wanted. We are always both - incalculable in which sex gets the dominance, uncertain of the consequences.

My Girl. My Boy. My Companion.

I have to tell you about an experience I had recently. You know, one of these magical days: the first rain after a long period of drought. I already tried to avoid leaving my place, it was not only that the dryness was uncomfortable, it was more that the air overfilled of scents. Scents from the past, hanging around, suggesting a source. I got stressed by these exacessive offers, where only a fraction was available for real. Also, others around me seemed to go in circles, trying to catch their illusion. At last this came to an end with the fresh rain, erasing every trace.

You always recognize these small moments, when you feel that there is only pureness. But then the fresh scents plop out and you think that you are the first one who notice them. I was fast on my way and while I was following the trace my jumping anticipation was just leaking out of me.

This special moment, I‘m sharing with you, is the moment when the spring is still in the air and your imagination spins around in delicious expectation.