Tag: ScentNavigation

Interesting places on the way home:

• Vietnamese restaurant putting out some sort of roasted meat smell. I would take my dog here.
• Mattress store that seemed to have an in-store scent?? Overly sweet.
• Park fountain, detectable about 2 blocks away. Quite pleasant.
• Florist shop, closed. No scent. 🙁
• Safeway: Bakery section.
• A burst asian restaurant smell, which was deicious but that I was unable to find. Pursuing the trail led me to a different one (American food). It was, however, successfully following a scent.
• Crossfit: smells like floor mats.
• A general increase in floral scents as I get into my neighborhood.
• My house: Smells like me 🙂

#ScentNavigation

Realizing the sort of earthy smell I’ve been detecting is… well, the Earth. This makes sense in retrospect, the strongest scents are going to be from wherever you are, and if there’s nothing strong around you it will be dominated by the ground.

It’s somewhat abundantly clear that very little attention is paid to the scentscape of cities. It’s not that it’s bad, quite the opposite: The mixing together of all the random odorous objects is surprisingly pleasant. It’s also quite grounding, I feel like I have a different degree of awareness of the places around me.

But, on the other hand, no concern had been given to ventilating streets, or planting flowers, or encouraging restaurants to put out food scents. I can imagine the last one to be a matter of regulation, it may be too strong for casual downtown pedestrians.

#ScentNavigation

Stepped onto a grassy area by the waterfront, and can immediately tell. Can also smell the nearby fountain!

It’s surprising to me how localized some of these are. I wasn’t able to smell the grass until I was basically on top of it, but now that I’m here it’s quite strong.

I think I may not be paying enough attention to wind direction: There’s not a lot, but there’s enough to affect what smells are found where. It’s a powerful effect, it will change the profile completely, and quickly. The air can smell completely different in under a second.

Also interesting: I’m noticing certain people around me more. More specifically, I noticed a man behind me who was a smoker, and also a woman who holy crap was using a lot of body lotion.

#ScentNavigation

Scientology building: No scent.

#ScentNavigation