{"id":52423,"date":"2026-10-31T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mag.bynez.com\/?p=52423"},"modified":"2026-10-30T21:24:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T20:24:28","slug":"mutating-olfaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mag.bynez.com\/en\/olfactory-culture\/mutating-olfaction\/","title":{"rendered":"Mutating Olfaction"},"content":{"rendered":"    <div id=\"chapo-block_cbf3cce45c22ce8caae3fcba95428870\" class=\"chapo\">\r\n        <blockquote class=\"chapo-blockquote\">\r\n            <span class=\"chapo-text\"><p>As Halloween approaches, we are all thinking about the terrifying creatures that haunt our screens, our nightmares or our real lives&#8230; What if fear also reached us through our noses? This is, at any rate, a subject that a number of authors have seized upon, giving the sense of smell a central \u2013 and frightening \u2013 role in their dystopias.<br \/>\nWe invite you on a literary overview in which perfume is no longer a luxury, but the last testament to our humanity and, at times, the first sign of our downfall.<br \/>\nAn article by Cl\u00e9ment Paradis, from the main feature of the 21st issue of Nez, \u201cThe Smell of the Future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/span>\r\n        <\/blockquote>\r\n        <style type=\"text\/css\">\r\n            #chapo-block_cbf3cce45c22ce8caae3fcba95428870 {\r\n                background: ;\r\n                color: ;\r\n            }\r\n        <\/style>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    \n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our readers know this: At <em>Nez<\/em>, we refuse to call perfumers \u201cnoses,\u201d because they are also \u2013 and above all \u2013 minds that think, hands that write and measure, and so on. But what does the future hold? In 1944, in <em>Future Times Three<\/em>, writer Ren\u00e9 Barjavel describes a time traveler\u2019s discovery of humanity in the year 100,000. By then, the species had produced highly specialized types, notably \u201cwatchers\u201d: On frail bodies, some had developed stalked eyes, others ears as wide as banana leaves, and still others were almost entirely reduced to elephant-trunk noses. Perhaps the distant descendants of famous perfumers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Barjavel is not the only science fiction author to have explored olfactory themes. Today, literary scholars like Chanelle Dupuis and art historians like Clara Muller are combing through our culture to uncover little-known bodies of work that invite us, through olfactory adventures, to better observe and understand the present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Images of a techno-olfactory future<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the end of the 19th century, the West was gripped by a frenzy of capturing and recording. In the space of a few years, the world was turned upside down: Bell transmitted the human voice over a wire and filed a patent for the telephone in 1876; Edison captured sound on wax cylinders and invented the phonograph the following year; and in 1874, in the laboratory of German chemists Ferdinand Tiemann and Wilhelm Haarmann, vanillin was synthesized for the first time, promising to replicate the precious scent of the pod at a lower cost. A sense of incompleteness nevertheless prevailed: If sound and image could travel and be preserved, why should scent \u2013 the sense of time and intimacy \u2013 remain the final frontier of the ephemeral? In 1878, Clara Muller notes in her article \u201cDesign for the nose: A brief history of olfactory objects,\u201d this question crystallizes in the pages of <em>Le Figaro<\/em>, in a column by a certain Louis de Beaumont \u2013 a science popularizer with a vivid imagination \u2013 who enthuses about a remarkable invention by Edison that had reportedly been presented to him: the Microdor. \u201c<em>With this instrument, man will be able to concentrate the emanations of bodies, amplify them and make them perceptible at enormous distances<\/em>,\u201d the article explains. Ideas for applications abound: \u201c<em>While hunting, you will be your own pointing dog, and no scent of fur or feather will escape the delicate senses of your instrument<\/em>,\u201d and \u201c<em>you will easily find, even if it has passed through a thousand different hands, the lost wallet or piece of jewelry; you will be able to recognize, right on the boulevard, the dandy who flirted with your wife one evening<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thus spreads the dream of an \u201caugmented\u201d sense of smell, in which a machine would compensate for the biological atrophy of modern man, who is said to have lost his animal instinct upon entering civilization. Of course, there is no trace of such a project in Edison\u2019s work. In 1878, then, literature continued to seize upon what science could not solve, and another journalist, the Swede Cla\u00ebs Lundin, published a text that was this time openly science fiction: <em>Oxygen och Aromasia<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The work is not a standalone piece, as it draws inspiration from a short story by the father of German science fiction, Kurd Lasswitz, \u201cBis zum Nullpunkt des Seins\u201d (\u201cTo the Zero Point of Existence\u201d), which the Swedish author likely discovered in the collection <em>Bilder aus der Zukunft<\/em> (\u201cImages of the Future\u201d), published that same year. Cla\u00ebs Lundin\u2019s novel expands on the framework established by the author from Breslau: In the year 2378, music as we know it has almost disappeared, because human hearing has become dulled by the incessant noise of past centuries. The dominant sense has become smell. The heroine, Aromasia, is a virtuoso on an instrument called the \u201cododion,\u201d a scent piano that, instead of producing sounds, releases combinations of essences into the concert hall. Her concerts are described as symphonies where scents follow one another, intertwine and create complex emotions in the audience, just as a melody would.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The starting gun has been fired: For a minority of authors, the future will be techno-olfactory or it will not be at all. The American Clement Fezandi\u00e9, author of the short story \u201cThe Super-Nose,\u201d (1922) part of the series <em>Dr. Hackensaw\u2019s Secrets<\/em>, revisits the theme of the scent machine, combining a \u201csmell-o-meter\u201d that quantifies smells, an \u201colfactograph\u201d that measures them for later use, and a \u201cmicrodorscope,\u201d a scent amplifier. Clement Fezandi\u00e9 reviews the many uses he envisions for such an invention, ranging from perfecting cuisine to detecting diseases. He also imagines fragrance libraries where every memory and every place is recorded on mechanical storage devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This idea also runs through the short story \u201cDans la cit\u00e9 future\u201d (\u201cIn the Future City\u201d), written in 1923 by Bernard Gervaise. In a futuristic city entirely covered by a glass roof, \u201colfactory discs\u201d are part of the new forms of entertainment, used to play symphonies of scents on a sort of olfactory gramophone. Scent becomes a form of data, a trail that can be classified, catalogued and replayed endlessly, including in a new art form that, according to Clement Fezandi\u00e9, would allow for the performance of \u201cgarlic symphonies\u201d capable of moving \u201cany Italian soul.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>In the wake of the police<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mainstream literature soon began to explore these themes. In 1932, Aldous Huxley described in <em>Brave New World<\/em> a future where perfume is woven into everyday life [<em>see the article \u201cBrave New World: Smelling the future\u201d in<\/em> Nez <em>#15<\/em>]. The characters use perfumes dispensed by taps in bathrooms, notably chypre, a favorite of the heroine, Lenina. Fragrances become a source of comfort and pleasure, but also a symbol of conditioning, embodied in particular by \u201cscented cinema,\u201d enjoyed by a crowd living standardized lives. The motif of the scent organ resurfaces as a symbolic element of mass entertainment and political domination through bodily pleasure. In the newly opened cabaret at Westminster Abbey, it is the flagship instrument that stimulates the senses, subjecting the audience to refrains played on a loop accompanied by fragrant wafts, notably ambergris and sandalwood. A lack of meaning nevertheless dominates the works being shown, which turn out to have been created by \u201cEmotion Engineers.\u201d One of the characters sums it up: \u201c<em>We must choose between happiness and what used to be called high art. We have sacrificed high art. Instead, we have scented films and the perfume organ.<\/em>\u201d Insidiously, scent serves here as a tool for state stability. By saturating entertainment venues with soothing synthetic fragrances, the global state bypasses rational thought through sensory stimulation: Repression is not achieved through force, but through the pursuit of pleasure. Huxley thus penned one of the first texts to theorize sensory marketing and social control through scent, taken to the extreme of dystopia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The theme of control, however, had been brewing among Huxley\u2019s predecessors: The \u201cnose-machine\u201d enthusiasts Beaumont and Fezandi\u00e9 also envisioned repressive uses for their inventions. \u201c<em>The official Microdors of the justice system will reconstruct the crime committed in all its phases by analyzing the various scents that accompanied its perpetration<\/em>,\u201d writes Louis de Beaumont. In <em>Le Figaro<\/em>, scientific fantasy becomes entangled in law enforcement, just as in the plans of Dr. Hackensaw, who claims to be able to smell the scent of a lie and assists the work of forensic pathologists, while he tests his application in criminology, using it to solve a theft. The most violent embodiment of this anxiety is undoubtedly found in Ray Bradbury\u2019s <em>Fahrenheit 451<\/em> (1953), where the sense of smell is a deadly tracking weapon. The Mechanical Hound, with its appendage capable of memorizing 10,000 chemical signatures, embodies a future where identity is no longer a name, but a trail. The robotic creature, half-robot, half-predator, resembling an eight-legged dog-bee, is designed to capture and kill individuals who possess or read banned books. Fleeing is therefore futile: It is their own bodily chemistry that betrays the victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Western modernity, marked by rapid urbanization and the hygiene revolutions, recognized early on the need to consider the management of breathable space. From the very opening of <em>Oxygen och Aromasia<\/em>, the sense of smell has influenced urban planning and housing. The first chapter, titled \u201cThe Garden of Aromasia,\u201d features plantings suspended on the rooftops of skyscrapers for their olfactory power. Flowers are selected and cross-bred to create environments saturated with specific scents, transforming the city\u2019s air into a controlled sensory space. For Bernard Gervaise, the metropolis of tomorrow is conceived as an organism whose lungs must be purified; climate is controlled by fans whose air is \u201c<em>infused with fragrant scents captured from afar \u2013 in the meadows of Scotland, the fir forests of the Vosges and the rose gardens of Tehran<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Politics and the control of atmospheres<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is, however, in contemporary literature that air emerges as the site of a political struggle. Chanelle Dupuis\u2019s recent work focuses on two novels in particular: <em>Les aigles puent<\/em> (<em>Eagles Stink<\/em>) by Lutz Bassmann (2010) and <em>Frappabord<\/em> by Mireille Gagn\u00e9 (2024). The first depicts a world devastated by corpses that saturate the air with an eternal stench of tar, making breathing agonizing. The second depicts Quebec suffocating under extreme heat and an epidemic spread by horseflies, where oxygen deprivation and confinement exacerbate social tensions. \u201c<em>These novels present imaginary societies where the scent of nature is altered by human behavior and where access to air and breathing become difficult<\/em>,\u201d explains Chanelle Dupuis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The odors of chemical decomposition (in Lutz Bassmann\u2019s work) or of insect-saturated heat (in Mireille Gagn\u00e9\u2019s work) reflect the violence inflicted upon the very bodies of citizens. Chemical weapons are deployed for specific political reasons: to win the war and annihilate \u201cthe enemy.\u201d The extreme stench generated by the bombs becomes the stigma of the victims, the symbol of a blatant abuse of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In <em>Frappabord<\/em>, the control of atmospheres takes on a more environmental and social dimension, mirroring climate change: The virus spread by horseflies is itself the result of a military experiment gone wrong, underscoring that the manipulation of living organisms, and air is an anthropocentric decision with deadly consequences. As Chanelle Dupuis points out, these dystopias show that the climate crisis and military violence create atmospheres that divide social classes: Some have access to clean, air-conditioned air, while others are condemned to suffocation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, in the anthology <em>Literature and the Senses<\/em>, contemporary fiction specialist Hsuan L. Hsu develops the concept of \u201catmospheric violence\u201d \u2013 the act of condemning certain populations to live in environments saturated with odors and toxic substances (industrial zones, mines, plantations) \u2013 further demonstrating that air is not a neutral domain, but is physically marked by inequalities and discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Mutations of the self<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Science fiction sometimes crosses a disturbing threshold: that of the very mutation of our sensory apparatus. In <em>The New Pleasure<\/em>, a novel by John Gloag published in 1933, a new drug called Voe, which greatly enhances the sense of smell, is introduced. Its success gradually upends society. Crowded conditions in buildings, public transportation and movie theaters become unbearable, and consumers\u2019 sexual desire intensifies. The novel traces the massive social, political and urban consequences of this transformation over several decades, culminating in an epilogue set 200 years later. Humanity ultimately chooses to put an end to pollution by dismantling its industry to live in a rural utopia: Smelling thus emerges as an act of dissent that sparks a revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One novel goes even further in exploring the profound changes linked to the sense of smell: Spider Robinson\u2019s <em>Telempath<\/em>, published in 1976. In it, the author imagines a humanity struck by a \u201c<em>hyperosmic plague<\/em>,\u201d which develops a sense of smell so powerful that it soon transforms into \u201c<em>telempathy<\/em>\u201d \u2013 a direct communication of emotions and thoughts facilitated by the perception of previously indiscernible gaseous entities. In this world, personal privacy collapses: The fear, desire or lies of others is clearly perceptible through pheromonal emissions. Radical transparency redefines the social contract. How can we live together when our most secret emotions float in the air, accessible to the first passerby? Smell thus becomes a permanent exposure that leaves no choice but brutal honesty, isolation or the learning of a new form of empathetic communion to avoid sinking into madness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The shift from speech to biochemical signals is explored even more radically in posthuman science fiction. Dietmar Dath\u2019s novel <em>The Abolition of Species<\/em> (2008) features the Gente, post-animal beings whose communication relies on \u201c<em>pherinfones<\/em>.\u201d Technology no longer takes the form of an external prosthesis; here, it is an integrated biological function: The exchange of complex information \u2013 ranging from the transmission of historical data to political management \u2013 occurs through the synthesis and emission of odorous and chemical molecules. The Gente \u201csniff\u201d their environment to read history, politics and emotions within it, turning the world into a vast text written in scents. This olfactory \u201c<em>ecotecture<\/em>\u201d shifts the focus away from humans, suggesting that the future of intelligence might lie in a biochemical symbiosis akin to the animal or plant kingdoms. This idea is also found in Octavia E. Butler\u2019s <em>Xenogenesis<\/em> trilogy (1987\u20131989), where aliens wield absolute mastery over genetic and chemical manipulation, transforming the act of smelling and tasting into a mode of knowledge and biological fusion with others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Like a compass<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The history of olfactory anticipation implicitly tells the story of our relationship with the world. It highlights a fierce Western desire to control the sensory \u2013 a desire that always ends up clashing with the primal or political awareness of the vital necessity of sharing the air. Between the 1878 dream of a microscope capable of unraveling all the mysteries of the atmosphere and the nightmare of air that must be purchased to be remembered \u2013 or even of intimacy transformed into a public or commercial archive \u2013 the sense of smell stands as a moral and visceral compass. As we close this incomplete literary overview, one question remains, however: Will the future truly be displayed on screens, or will it rather be inhaled, in the silence of an archive or in the urgency of a breath of fresh air?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This article was published in <a href=\"https:\/\/shop.bynez.com\/boutique\/nez-the-olfactory-magazine\/nez-the-olfactory-magazine-21-the-smell-of-the-future\/\">Nez #21 \u2013 The Smell of the Future<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Illustration: Erwann Terrier<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new literary landscape is emerging today, in which perfume is no longer a luxury, but the last testament to our humanity and, at times, the first sign of our downfall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20515,"featured_media":52428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[677,1415],"tags":[8882,8904,8913,8881,8902,3778,8901,8915,5319,8909,8916,680,780,8908,8903,8879,8905,8906,8907,8914,3723,8912,8883,8884,8880,986,5960,8910,8900,8911],"series":[],"ppma_author":[3084],"class_list":["post-52423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-olfactory-culture","tag-aldous-huxley","tag-bernard-gervaise","tag-book","tag-chanelle-dupuis","tag-claes-lundin","tag-clara-muller-3-en","tag-clement-fezandie","tag-climate-change","tag-culture-en","tag-dietmar-dath","tag-dystopia","tag-history","tag-hsuan-hsu","tag-john-gloag","tag-kurd-lasswitz","tag-literature","tag-louis-de-beaumont","tag-lutz-bassmann","tag-mireille-gagne","tag-octavia-e-butler","tag-olfaction-2","tag-politics","tag-ray-bradbury","tag-rene-barjavel","tag-science-fiction","tag-sense-of-smell","tag-non-classifiee-en-12","tag-spider-robinson","tag-thomas-edison","tag-vanillin","pmpro-has-access"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - 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