Scent world

Two colleagues and I are trying to write a paper that is both multispecies and embodied. I know. Don't ask. I am not sure how we will pull it off either, although they have previously collaborated on something innovative, creative and exciting: if anyone can do it, that can - and I'll be along for the ride.

Anyway, on the embodiment issue, there's a desire to move away from the usual focus on sight, vision, what we see. In my garden at the moment, I see very little except dappled shadows and rustling leaves, but I hear a great deal. The voices of the birds, the sound when one lands on the fence (you can tell how large the bird is and often species just by the sound) and the sound when they feed from the various feeders, or splash the water, or scramble through the vegetation.

Then, of course, there is smell.

The lilac is incredible. Both trees perfuming the air, especially in the evening.

The snowdrops and the Mexican orange blossom are also stunningly aromatic. Bend close, and the old fashioned roses are paradise to the olfaction!

Back in the 90s, Channel 4 did a night of Smell-o-vision. They must have made cards available, to scratch and sniff. I remember the event, but I had a dreadful hangover and don't recall much about the night itself. Maybe I felt too sick to sniff or had been so drunk that I failed to buy the card. I cannot find any reference to this on the internet. I thought it happened in 1993 or 1994. But I did see that there have been various attempts in cinema, all of which failed.

I wonder if there's any way we could apply this... a person must sniff the soil, perhaps, when they read about the earth...