AuraForest

The project explores an unsettled future, questioning humanity’s relationships with other living entities. It proposes a series of video capsules representing scents produced by select organisms, catalogued as digital Library of Scents. 

The digital archive communicates the diverse biogeography of the air created by organisms (plants, fungi, bacteria, insects) surrounding a single tree: the Scots Pine, highlighting the value of breath — and the importance of our sense of smell — by examining them within a digital vacuum.

2030 — the year by which many governments are promising to become carbon neutral in order to tackle the climate crisis. Deforestation of native forests and increasing air pollution are devastating socio-political issues, and limited access to nature — especially experienced during the pandemic — has proven consequences for physical and mental health.

For that reason, demonstrating the value of local forestry in respiratory terms is not merely adequate but necessary to the current moment. AuraForest affords a poetic means of reminding human subjects that they are part of the larger ecosystem. Sensuality and narrative devices serve to evoke empathetic responses by synesthetic experiences.

LIBRARY OF SCENTS

audio-video scent capsules

AuraForest is a catalogue of potential loss: loss of breath, loss of smell, loss of species

HERBAL, DEEP, WET, SOFT, WARM, MOIST, RESINOUS

EARTHY, SWEET, DEEP, WET, SOFT, WARM, MOIST

SWEET, DIMMED, SMOKY, POWDERY, WARM, RESINOUS

EARTHY, DEEP, WARM, RICH, HUMID, WET

EARTHY., DEEP, WET, SOFT, WARM, MOIST