With a lack of smell, I am lost. Now I am in search of smell to self-reorient and deterritorialized. Through this thesis I attempt to investigate the capability of smell and its relationship to bodies and societies, how smell orients us through lines of history and how it participates in the revolutionary act of becoming “civilized”.

Inspired by In the Wake by Christina Sharp and the use of her own autography as a base to resemble theories which are evidential throughout her life. I use my own narratives as a starting point to theorize and analyze forces behind the ‘lines of direction’ as a method of this writing. To bring the theory of smell into practice, as theory and practice are never separated. The narratives are selected by three main themes; smell that orients, smell that dis-places/disorientates and smell as evidence. These narratives guide the text through ideas from the sociology of smell through to group orientation negated by smell, smell as an invisible boundary that dissolves territory lines, how deodorization is used as a method of colonization and the possibility of re-odorization as a method for reterritorializing space or ground and how smell can show itself as evidence of beings.

Common Scents_A Social Sense of Smell_Orientation, Territory and the Evidence of Beings

Common Scents A Social Sense of Smell: Orientation, Territory and the Evidence of Beings is a part of M.A.  at Dutch Art Institute