Somatic Atlas
An aroma reference kit for the complex nuances of human odor, made of a booklet and thirty vials that each hold a different scent of the body.
- Year
- 2023
- Medium
- Booklet, 30 vials, aroma materials
- With
- Dr. Meg Younger, Assistant Professor of Biology, Boston University
- Edition
- Available to order
About the work
The kit builds on the Body Odor Wheel, which sorts body odors into seven categories and twenty-eight subtypes. Forensic scientists, researchers and the fragrance industry use the wheel, and it has been turned into a smell game for training.
The wheel is incomplete, and it carries assumptions about gender. Somatic Atlas is a more detailed, gender-neutral reference that lets people read about these scent spaces and smell them, the way sommeliers train with aroma kits for wine.
Dr. Meg Younger's research on what draws mosquitoes to human molecules is folded into the kit.
Try it
Select a family to see which of the thirty vials it holds.
- Chemical gasoline, phenolic, aldehyde, vinegar, ammonia, alcohol
- Fruity citrus, passion fruit, fruity
- Spicy turmeric, cumin, spice, chili, burnt
- Animalic wet dog, fishy, goat, boar
- Fatty fatty, cheesy, butter, meaty, beer
- Vegetative asparagus, cabbage, garlic, onion
- Green hay, grass, mint
The kit's seven families and thirty scents, as mapped in the booklet.
Shown at
- 2023Visiting Artist Residency, BU Arts Initiative, Boston University