Universal scent blackbox: engaging visitors communication through creating olfactory experience at art museum

This paper describes the experience of experimental artwork "Universal Scent Blackbox", which encourages visitors interaction through creating olfactory experience in art museum. Smell is used as the evocative interface between the artwork and the visitors. When a visitor passed by a certain area, it would trigger the odor emission in another area for the other visitors. The visitors on another side could trigger the odor emission back as well. Throughout the experience, visitors can freely explore the scents around the area of the artwork. In addition, the visitors can express their memories of smell through writing onto origami boxes which contribute as a part of the city model of the artwork. The artwork consisted of all the visitors' memories expression and communication at the end of exhibition. The aim of this paper is neither technology investigation nor user experience evaluation. Instead it is an open-end exploration which questions the role of olfactory interface in art museum context and provokes the insights about olfactory interaction design in Human-Computer Interaction. The artwork becomes the inspirational probe to explore the possibilities of olfactory interface with the users when designing for communication. The benefits and drawbacks of the chosen approach towards olfactory interaction design would be discussed. I would also address the lessons learned behind throughout the process.