Digital Culture & AudioVisual Challenges

This research project explores how smell functions as a sociocultural marker and a mediator of power examining the ways the olfactory influence perceptions of authority, social hierarchies, and interpersonal dynamics. While the biological mechanisms of smell are universal, cultural frameworks assign distinct meaning to different smells: signifying purity or pollution, tradition or taboo, and in doing so, reinforce social inequalities and shape cross-cultural interactions. The project further investigates how olfactory experiences and smells themselves will be translated into radio waves, forging a technological bridge between sensory perception and digital storytelling to craft multisensory narratives that transcend geographic and cultural boundaries.