World Sensorium / Conservancy invites people around the world to bring attention to aromatic plants and the need to conserve them, by telling their personal scent-fueled memories that these plants evoke.
Aromatic plants can evoke autobiographical memories for people around the world but these sources of our scent-fueled memories are at risk. Help bring attention to what these plants mean to us by creating a short video interpreting your memory experience triggered by aromatic flora.
The goal is to spark an emotional response in others that have become indifferent to the natural world. We need everyone to act, restore and conserve plant biodiversity, because it is our united actions that will save the natural world for future generations.
Smells of plants are special because they often bring back specific meaningful memories that otherwise might never have been recalled from long-term memory. The brain regions that process smells, emotions and memories are intrinsically intertwined in a unique evolutionary wiring that has enabled our survival. Smelling aromatic plants not only evokes positive autobiographical memories, but their molecules reduce physiological stress and systemic inflammation, bringing about a sense of well-being. Over time, the scents of some plants have become a critical part of our bio-cultural heritage.
Proust Phenomenon
In Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust (1871-1922) perfectly described how a bite of a madeleine biscuit dipped in Linden tea immediately transported him to a forgotten time in his childhood. How olfactory stimuli can cue autobiographical memories became known as the “Proust phenomenon” and in time scientists found that odor-evoked memories are most often recalled from the first couple decades of life.
Plant scents not only enhance memory but act as sensorial chemical cues to memory retrieval.
During difficult times, it is the captivating beauty of a flower’s scent that may lift your spirits and change your mood. That positive feeling of lift and connection is real and scientifically confirmed. Unfortunately, many plants and the magnificent places they grow in are threatened. As global temperatures climb and the destructive effects mount, humankind must transform our impact on the natural world. It is essential that we stop exploiting plants and protect them together as conservationists.
There are many roles aromatic plants play in our lives from time spent in natural landscapes and spiritual practices, to gardening, cooking, celebrations, traditions, self-care and health practices. We love aromatic plants for their beauty and the sense of well-being they bring about in us. Conservation action not only preserves the natural environment; it saves culture, traditions, and meaning that can only be known through sense of smell.
Olfaction, Plants, and World Memory
All aromatic plants release microscopic volatile molecules, compounds that likely evolved to attract pollinators. These complex chemical mixtures stimulate human olfactory receptors that detect the molecules and send the information via electrical signals to the brain for identification. The limbic system that processes smells is intertwined with brain structures responsible for emotions, memory, learning, performance and creativity. These consciously and unconsciously affect mood, feelings, and behavior, which is why smell is such a powerful sense.
Within our brains, smell and memory are a team. How smells affect us depends on our conditioned responses – preferences determined by associative learning through cultural immersion. This process begins earlier than one might think. By the third trimester, a baby’s brain is processing the chemical stimuli of smells and tastes. After birth, children often show preferences for food the mother consumed during pregnancy. Also influential are smells the mother inhaled. Research has found that aromatic chemicals can be detected in amniotic fluid within seconds, meaning the chemicals of the external sensory environment begin forming our preferences in utero. We are born pre-conditioned to our chemical culture and environment, creating an emotional connection to our early homes.
The link between smell and memory is common and essential to all human beings. Smelling grass, pine trees, or jasmine in the night air, can automatically bring back memories from years or decades ago. The cultural research of the World Sensorium project provided strong evidence of powerful human-plant relationships, and the impact of their characteristic scents.
The sensory experience of flavor is mostly from smell. When one chews food, aromatic molecules travel to the back retro-nasal area of the nasal epithelium where olfactory receptors are held. World Sensorium is full of edible plants whose molecules have been transmitted to the olfactory bulb in the brain and have guided human behavior for centuries.
About World Sensorium/Convervancy
Formed in 2017, the World Sensorium Conservancy (WSC) by New York based Nalls Studio is an online public interest initiative committed to addressing the biodiversity loss and sustainable conservation of world flora through art, science, and education.
Using research on olfaction and bio-cultural heritage from the World Sensorium project, the Conservancy monitors and reports on objective findings from the international scientific community, climate organizations, and biodiversity data banks. Our mission is to provide guidance for individuals who wish to contribute to the conservation of medicinal and aromatic plants and address biodiversity loss.
World Memory Earth Day Event
The World Sensorium/Conservancy invites you to tell the world about the scent of a plant that triggers memories for you. We must let others know why and how certain plants and their scents are important to us— how they support our lives and the lives of the world we love. Plant smells are hard to capture in words but communicating your scent triggered memory can help tell this story.
It’s the smell of the Arnica cream your mother used to rub on your bumps.
It’s the White Sage along the path of your favorite hiking trail.
It’s the Sandalwood perfume you wear on date night.
It’s decorating the Chritmas tree with loved ones.
(All of the plants mentioned above are endangered in various parts of the world.)
Share your short plant scent memory video on
Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or TikTok on April 22nd.
Tag your video @worldsensorium and include
#myplantscentmemory and #worldsensoriumconservancy
Click here for hints on how. Click here for video examples.
We’ll Plant a Tree In Your Name
If you sign up, when you share your video, we’ll plant a tree in your name and your name will be listed on the WS/C website Earth Day video challenge page. Sign Up and invite your friends to and make a scent memory video.
Every action adds up. Reforestation addresses climate change, helping all plants thrive!
Visit http://www.worldsensorium.com/video-challenge for more information.
Written by Gayil Nalls © 2021 (Reprinted with permission)
Gayil Nalls, Ph.D. (United States) is an interdisciplinary artist creating at the forefront of science-art practices and theoretical discourse. She is an internationally known pioneer of olfactory art and science and is the creator of World Sensorium, the olfactory social sculpture. World Sensorium is the culmination of Nalls’ investigations into neuroaesthetics, botany, the anthropology of olfaction, and collective behavior. This statistically based composition of phytogenic materials is an on-going work created to evoke a global memory. Nalls broadened the definition of sculpture and public art when World Sensorium, endorsed by UNESCO, premiered at New York’s Times Square 2000 celebration, released to a crowd of millions as the New Year arrived. The influential work creatively tapped into collective world memory as a natural resource to provide a universal experience.
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