Nosy researcher’s quest to map the world’s ‘smellscapes’

We can share images and sounds, so why not smells? Dr Kate McLean-MacKenzie hopes her new atlas will make scents

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hristmas may be associated with the aromas of oranges and mince pies but our towns and cities also boast special scents during the rest of the year. Now, one researcher is publishing an atlas attempting to capture these quirky “smellscapes”.

Dr Kate McLean-MacKenzie, a designer and researcher at the University of Kent, said she first became intrigued by the sense of smell 15 years ago.

“I realised that there was an enormous gap in the fact that we communicate what we see – and we can record that and we can share it via Instagram and photography and sketching – and we can record and share sounds digitally. But any way of recording and communicating smell was largely missing,” she said.