Olfactory Bio-politics: Nairobi

The sense of smell plays a crucial role in ordering life, creating distinctions between access and wealth and a method of behaviour modification. Coltrane McDowell's three-video installation features case studies from Kenya, exploring different dimensions of olfaction; from the luxury scented rose economy affected by the global pandemic to informal alcohol brewers in one of Nairobi’s settlements and an analysis of the aforementioned settlement and its adjacent neighbourhoods using advanced fragrance technology. Each video works with accompanying scents developed on-site and a third olfactory reconstruction based on data collected in Nairobi. These elements are part of a larger body of work on smell as a lens for design research.