Sniffs of failure: discomfort, unease and serendipity in sensory communication design

Failure is integral to my practice; throughout my career as a smellscape mapper I have rejected the mindset that design solves problems in the quest for novel approaches to experience and record human smell perceptions. To do so I deliberately provoke an unwitting public into a state of being uncomfortable as they foreground an alternate sensory modality. The fear of failure (a perceived inability to identify smells) is often mitigated by the lack of canon and absence of smell education that frees any expectation for smell recording and visualisation. Through a case study this chapter will consider the potential for, and resulting creativity emanating from, working with people and their olfactory communications for the creative designer as a result of reflection on live projects. The chapter draws on one public engagement projects; one experimental and ephemeral mapping in Staten Island in 2017.