The Invisible Crisis: How Art Confronts Olfactory Pollution
By Elena Giulia Abbiatici
Olfactory pollution, also known as odor pollution, refers to the presence of harmful or unpleasant airborne compounds that disrupt the environment and negatively impact human health. It is not merely an inconvenience—it is an urgent environmental crisis that threatens both human well-being and the planet. Originating from landfills, incinerators, agricultural facilities, chemical and pharmaceutical plants, livestock farms, refineries, and more, its consequences extend far beyond unpleasant smells. In recent decades, scientific research has revealed the alarming dangers of ozone, which damages DNA in alveolar macrophages—immune cells responsible for removing harmful substances from our lungs—and endothelial cells in the trachea. Furthermore, exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been linked to a significantly increased risk of anosmia (loss of smell), making this an issue of growing medical concern. The problem of olfactory pollution is a stark warning sign of broader environmental destruction. The 20th century saw a shift from physical warfare to chemical and environmental warfare—a transition philosopher Peter Sloterdijk described as the advent of "terror from the air." Today, manipulation of the atmosphere continues through industrial emissions, pollutants, and climate-altering chemicals, raising questions about our ability to control or even mitigate this silent but insidious threat. Despite its serious consequences, Europe has yet to establish comprehensive legislation regulating olfactory pollution. While the EN13725 standard, approved in 2002, introduced dynamic olfactometry to measure odor concentration, the subjectivity of this technique—relying on human sensory panels—limits its reliability. The lack of strict regulations allows industries to continue polluting the air with impunity, while affected populations struggle to have their concerns addressed.
In the absence of robust policies, artists have stepped in, using scent as a medium to confront environmental and social injustices. One of the most prominent in this field is Belgian artist Peter De Cupere, whose provocative installations immerse audiences in the realities of air pollution. His Air Polluter (2007) allows visitors to manipulate scent, prompting them to reconsider how society defines “good” and “bad” odors. Smoke Cloud (2013) envelops visitors in artificial pollution, forcing them to physically experience the contamination of urban air. The variation in scent intensity between exhibition locations reflects local pollution levels, reinforcing the global scale of this crisis. De Cupere’s Smoke Flowers (2017) takes this concept further by demonstrating how pollution is absorbed into nature itself. Through scent engineering, real flowers are programmed to “exhale” industrial contaminants, symbolizing the irreversible damage humans inflict on the environment. Similarly, British-South African artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s Resurrecting the Sublime (2019) seeks to recover lost biodiversity through scent, using DNA sequencing to recreate the smell of extinct flowers, underscoring the urgency of ecological preservation. Beyond environmental pollution, olfactory injustice extends to social and economic spheres. Korean-American artist Anicka Yi addresses this in Life Is Cheap (2016), where ant colonies navigate an environment filled with hybrid scents, reflecting the exploitation of labor in the tech industry. Toxic conditions in mines extracting lithium and coltan—essential minerals for modern technology—are rarely acknowledged, yet Yi’s work forces viewers to confront the multisensory impact of this invisible exploitation. Paul Vanouse’s Labor (2019) revives the scent of sweat—a once-symbolic marker of physical labor—to critique the rise of automation and the erasure of human effort. Meanwhile, the Russian collective Where Dogs Run explores scent’s role in surveillance. Their Faces of Smell (2012) uses biometric gas sensors to track individuals based on their body odors, eerily mirroring real-world surveillance techniques.
As scientific advancements strive to address olfactory pollution, a pressing question arises: Are these technologies mitigating harm or exerting further control over our senses? Innovations like air purifiers, scent diffusers, and olfactory diagnostics now aim to combat pollution and detect early symptoms of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The Smellicopter, a drone developed by the University of Washington, uses a moth’s antenna to detect hazardous airborne substances, proving scent’s crucial role in environmental monitoring. However, scent is also being harnessed in the realm of digital control. The Smell of Data project by Dutch artists Leanne Wijnsma and Froukje Tan uses synthetic odor to alert users to data breaches, highlighting olfaction’s emerging role in surveillance capitalism. In the corporate world, the perfume industry is experimenting with blockchain and NFTs, as seen with Rook Perfumes’ Scent the Metaverse (2021), which allows users to co-create a fragrance and gain digital ownership of its composition. The long-standing dream of transmitting scent in real-time over the internet is inching closer to reality, raising ethical concerns about commercialization and manipulation of the olfactory sense.
The COVID-19 pandemic further underscored the significance of smell. With anosmia and parosmia (distorted smell perception) emerging as key symptoms, the global health crisis forced society to reconsider the essential role of olfaction in daily life. Research at the Italian Institute of Technology and Harvard University is now exploring neural prosthetics to restore lost olfactory functions—an advancement that could also aid memory restoration and emotional well-being. Yet, even as science progresses, modern societies remain dominated by sight and sound, neglecting the profound influence of scent. The loss of olfactory awareness has wider implications—disconnecting us from nature, diminishing cultural heritage, and reinforcing artificial, sanitized environments. Artists, scientists, and activists alike must continue pushing for a renewed understanding of scent as an essential, political, and environmental force. The air we breathe is not just a passive medium—it is a battleground of power, pollution, and perception. Whether through artistic interventions, technological solutions, or policy changes, the fight against olfactory pollution is a fight for a more just, livable future. The question remains: Will we act before it’s too late?
