Explore cities on a smellwalk

KATE MCLEAN offers ‘smellwalks’ through major cities around the world. Those lucky enough to catch one of her irregular tours announced on her website will be able to discover urban spaces in a way few others will have done before.

“You might have to stick your nose into something, scratch tree bark, or actually break leaves,” McLean ( below, left) told participants at a recent smelltour of New York’s Central Park.

On her tours, the cosmopolitan researcher asks participants to describe the smells they detect, “not merely identify them”.

During her last smellwalk, McLean says that one participant picked up “the smell of shattered dreams”, to which another responded: “I got that too – it’s the smell of stale beer on the sidewalk.”

A graphic designer and PhD candidate in information experience design at the Royal College of Art in London, McLean also creates ‘smellmaps’ of different cities around the world like Glasgow, Milan and Paris.

She says every city has three basic types of smell, starting with the “background smells” that are always present.

“In Singapore, for instance, it’s the smell of humid air and spicy street food.”

Then, there are temporary smells, such as those from a bakery where bread is being baked, or from traffic during rush hour.

And finally, there are fleeting smells. “One might come from somebody who walks past you. You can spend a lot of time chasing these.”

It’s estimated that we have the capacity to discriminate between up to one trillion smells.

“In order to detect every smell that’s out there, you’d have to live 114,000 years,” McLean says. – dpa