Priti Pandurangan — Information Experience Designer

I'm undertaking a series of walks to better understand strategies for observing, collecting, and recording multi-sensory information around us. This research draws from psychogeography, placemaking, and embodied methodologies, seeking to understand the nuances of place through movement, stillness, and shared experiences. I explore how constraint, collaboration, and attention shape our relationship with place.

22.03.23 & 08.06.23 | Undertaken along with Dr. Kate McLean

I had the pleasure of accompanying Dr. Kate McLean on her smell walks, intended to learn more about the issue of gentrification in Chatham, Kent. During our journey, I picked up tidbits of information on registering and recording smells, the need to involve locals for understanding the lived experience of a place, and the nuances of creating a study revolving around the senses

Registering smells

I learned strategies for registering new smells through the act of repeated sniffing, pausing and varying between short and long sniffs. Prof. McLean elaborated on factors like prior context, temperature that affect our ability to register a smell and the differences between indoor and outdoor smells.

Recording smells

Another key point gathered during the walk was the value in recording senses and their associations immediately during the experience rather than based on recall at a later point. More nuanced associations and context tend to be recorded when participants visualise their impressions as they experience it.

Lived experience

I also learned about the need for involving locals, particularly when a study is intended to understand the lived experience of a place. Deep context is required to understand the transient nature of a city through the changes in its sensory experience.