Scentiment
Speculating on a future where fragrance becomes language and emotion becomes data; a sensory system that translates the body’s chemistry into expression
SPECULATIVE FICTION | TANGIBLE EMOTIONS | SMELL SIGNATURE
Academic Project, M Des NID
2022
World Setting
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Could olfaction become the new interface for emotional honesty?
Could olfaction become the new interface for emotional honesty?
Sentiment argues that emotional authenticity can exist beyond language. In a world saturated with curated updates, performative affect, and algorithmic self-presentation, the project proposes the body rather than cognition or speech as the last site of unedited truth. By capturing pre-verbal chemical signals from sweat, the wearable bypasses conscious emotional performance and translates the body’s raw biochemical state into scent and form.
Sentiment argues that emotional authenticity can exist beyond language. In a world saturated with curated updates, performative affect, and algorithmic self-presentation, the project proposes the body rather than cognition or speech as the last site of unedited truth. By capturing pre-verbal chemical signals from sweat, the wearable bypasses conscious emotional performance and translates the body’s raw biochemical state into scent and form.
A Post-Emotional Portrait
A Post-Emotional Portrait
This translation produces an incorruptible signal: a fragrance derived directly from the wearer’s own chemosignals. Rather than encouraging heightened expression, Sentiment advocates for emotional honesty an unfiltered baseline of affect that resists manipulation, narrative, or social optimisation. Emotion here is not declared; it is detected.
At the core of the project is a wearable bio-translator that renders the wearer’s subconscious emotional state into tangible outputs; color-coded bubbles and synthesised scent, forming a sensory portrait of affective data.
This translation produces an incorruptible signal: a fragrance derived directly from the wearer’s own chemosignals. Rather than encouraging heightened expression, Sentiment advocates for emotional honesty an unfiltered baseline of affect that resists manipulation, narrative, or social optimisation. Emotion here is not declared; it is detected.
At the core of the project is a wearable bio-translator that renders the wearer’s subconscious emotional state into tangible outputs; color-coded bubbles and synthesised scent, forming a sensory portrait of affective data.
Yet this act of translation introduces a deliberate paradox. If emotion is externalised through data, does it remain authentic, or does it become a simulation? Is the fragrance a recovered emotional truth, or an olfactory deepfake - an algorithmic echo of a feeling no longer consciously accessible?
By wearing the scent of their own emotional data, the individual is confronted with a digital doppelgänger: a version of the self constructed from involuntary signals rather than intention.
Yet this act of translation introduces a deliberate paradox. If emotion is externalised through data, does it remain authentic, or does it become a simulation? Is the fragrance a recovered emotional truth, or an olfactory deepfake - an algorithmic echo of a feeling no longer consciously accessible?
By wearing the scent of their own emotional data, the individual is confronted with a digital doppelgänger: a version of the self constructed from involuntary signals rather than intention.
About the Project
Set in a dystopian future shaped by homo-machinus, Scentiment explores emotions as data, scent as language, and the body as an interface. The project explores new forms of non-verbal, sensory communication in a future where emotional expression has diminished.
About the Project
Set in a dystopian future shaped by homo-machinus, Scentiment explores emotions as data, scent as language, and the body as an interface. The project explores new forms of non-verbal, sensory communication in a future where emotional expression has diminished.
E-forager - Proximity-triggered activation indicated through colour change.
Form Exploration - drawing from the past and making it futuristic
Form Exploration - drawing from the past and making it futuristic
Concept Video
How does it work?
How does it work?
Bubble Lexicon
Bubble Lexicon