KINSANANAKO
Xishuangbanna Memory Smell Map
This project revisits the urban memories of Xishuangbanna from an olfactory perspective, as experienced by the artist and her grandfather. Inspired by Psychogeography, the artist selected a walking route that she and her grandfather had traversed countless times. Using her sense of smell, she explored scents that evoked memories of her grandfather, prompting her to notice often-overlooked details. By manipulating the map, she intervened in the city's logic, constructing an alternative geography and offering a different view of the urban landscape. Through cartography, she combined personal narratives and perceptions, triggering new perspectives and analyses to create a new form of mapping. Beginning with the source of the scents, she searched for materials that emitted these memory-associated smells, analyzing their type, intensity, range, and corresponding emotional tones. From these discoveries, the artist created a memory smell map tracing the route of her shared memories with her grandfather.
Psychologists and neurologists have long understood the close connection between our sense of smell and our memories. Physiologically, our olfactory bulb is directly linked to the amygdala and hippocampus. These brain areas are stimulated when we recall or experience emotions. A perfume, a food or a tree can quickly transport us back to a place or an emotion in a way that even vision cannot replicate.
This Project explore the city intentionally and unintentionally to discover the under-appreciated details of the area and to find out how people relate to space. It is about turning the universal into the particular. Scent becomes the medium through which I communicate with time and space.The scent is more persuasive than words, expressions, emotions or willpower. It enters our lungs like breath, fills our body and penetrates it entirely without room for manoeuvre.