It is estimated that about 250,000 people in the Netherlands have an olfactory disorder. Anosmia (complete loss of smell) is the most common of these.

 

I also have anosmia. Due to an illness at the age of two, I lost my sense of smell completely. The memories and feelings that smell can evoke are unimaginable to me. I can’t imagine the smell of a flower. Until I started the project “Smelling with your eyes”.

 

In this project I had a number of participants blindly smell the flower ‘Roselily Thalita’ (double lily) in different stages of the flowering process. The participants visualized the smells they experienced in a drawing. The end result is a visualization of the scent, built from various layers of the different participants. 

 

For the first time, I can now experience smell. With another sense: my eyes. For me, the unimaginability of smell has turned into curiosity and enthusiasm.

 

With this project I want to make smell visible for people with anosmia, so that they, like me, can experience the total experience of a flower. 

 

In addition, I want to make people who can smell, think about the fact that this is not a given for everyone. I hope that through this project I can create more gratitude and awareness about this matter. 

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INFORMATION:

Botanical name flower: 
'Roselily Thalita'

Stages of wilting process: 
1. Initial bloom stage
2. Full bloom stage
3. Terminal bloomstage

Visualized by:
Marie van der Kroft 
Iduna Snip 
Eve Hurst 
Suuske de Wolff
Stan Wijnands

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Date: September 2021