Scents of Solastalgia (SoS)

Have you noticed that the smells around you have changed?
Do you miss the old smells or love the new ones?

Aromas are everywhere and affect us and the life around us in ways that words can’t describe. Changes in the smells of the world around us can have a significant impact on how we feel physically and emotionally but we don’t usually notice unless it smells bad. Construction and climate change cause some of the biggest changes at the moment, but we don’t have a lot of control over these. Finding ways to create new smellscapes can help us feel more connected to the life around us and more empowered to create positive change.

Join Tarsh Bates and Alanna Lynch to share your memories and experiences of the smells in your environments and explore tools for understanding how smell connects with your feelings about environmental change.

This workshop is part of the Scents of Solastalgia project developed by Tarsh Bates and Susan Hauri-Downing.



Tarsh Bates has worked as a pizza delivery driver, a fruit and vegetable stacker, a toilet-paper packer, a compost researcher, a honeybee ejaculator, a gallery invigilator, a raspberry picker, an academic, an editor, a bookkeeper, a car detailer, and a life drawing model. Bates has a PhD from SymbioticA and is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Design & Molecular Biology at Umeå University, Sweden exploring olfaction as interspecies communication. Tarsh is enamoured with Candida albicans.

Alanna Lynch is an artist and researcher with a background in biology, psychology, and information studies. She works with living entities, organic materials, smell, and performance. She was a founding member of the artist collective Scent Club Berlin, and her work has been supported by grants from Germany, Canada, and Sweden. In 2018, she was awarded the Berlin Art Prize.