Smell as a Missing Link Toward Embodied Language (online)
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What if we moved beyond asking how to translate smells into an existing language and began asking what new forms of language smell itself might help us create?
This question began to take shape while thinking about smells as a language — a poetic metaphor, a chemical formula, an olfactory pyramid, a cultural vocabulary of scent. In Western culture, smells are most often verbalised through the principle of comparison: “it smells like…”. But how do we actually experience the milieu we inhabit? All the senses interweave into shared experiential networks, lines, they layer and overlap — we inhale the world and exhale ourselves, thus creating common atmospheres in which the traces of our relationships remain, forming dialogues and a shared memory for futures. For me, as a visual artist, language is not only sound but also image. When language becomes written, memory emerges as a form of legacy — a way of preserving and transmitting meaning across time.
Dzervute’s research unfolds within a cabinet of olfactiosities, Where she gather evidence for an olfactive archive while experimenting with new forms of language choreography. Breathing in the world in which she finds herself, she reflects on how our actions in the present might communicate to future times about the Earth and its atmospheric bubbles, as the present becomes the past.
About Dovile Dzervute
Dovile Dzervute is a designer and researcher based in Vilnius, Lithuania, whose creative practice explores memory, tacit knowledge, embodied language, new forms of communication, togetherness, and speculative design. She began her career in contemporary dance theatre, where she created visual communication and scenography. Later, she continued her career as a lecturer in the fields of Visual Communication and Design Research. She served as Head of the Graphic Communication Department at Vilnius College of Design. She has worked on both creative and commercial design projects, specialising in book design, identity and packaging, and has received numerous design awards.
For over 15 years, she has immersed herself in the world of scents while working for the conceptual art perfumery company FUMparFUM, based in Vilnius, Lithuania. Participated in olfactory art exhibitions in collaboration with colleagues. Dovilė is a current doctoral candidate and researcher at the Vilnius Academy of Arts.
About Olfactory Provocations
The Olfactory Provocations series from the Institute for Art and Olfaction aims to present new, original, and thought-provoking perspectives in a series of short format lectures. In each talk, you can expect to discover an unexpected idea presented by a thinker and practitioner in the scent community. We offer this series with the belief that being exposed to and discussing new ideas is important, whether you agree with them or not. With that said, the views and opinions presented in the Olfactory Provocations series do not reflect the opinions or the IAO or its employees.
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