"Audio extra: Test yourself, can you taste the sounds?

Oxford University psychologist Charles Spence studies human senses and how they interact. In recent studies, he had people smell wines and sample chocolate, and then match the different aromas and flavors to different musical sounds.

He found that people tend to associate sweet tastes with high-pitched notes and the sounds of a piano. People match bitter flavors with low notes and brass instruments.

Spence wondered if he could put this finding to use. Could he use music to influence what people smell or taste?"

"What should a robot smell like? Kevin Grennan has augmented three existing industrial robots with 'sweat glands'. Each uses a specific property of human sub-conscious behaviour in response to a chemical stimulus: one makes humans about to undergo surgery more trustful, another one makes women working in production line more focused and the third one is a bomb disposal robot that emits the smell of fear.<br />
<br />
The contrast between the physical anti-anthropomorphic nature of the machines and the olfactory anthropomorphism highlights the absurd nature of the trickery at play in all anthropomorphism…<br />
<br />
The Smell of Control: Fear, Focus, Trust also involved demonstrating the limits of anthropomorphism. The video of the android's birthday shows a lovely android attempting to recreate the most straightforward moment of a birthday celebration: blowing the candles of the birthday cake…"

"The Binturong climbs trees and leaps from branch to branch, using its tail and claws to cling while searching for food. It can rotate its hind legs backwards so that its claws still have a grip when climbing down a tree head first.<br />
The Binturong also uses its tail to communicate, through the scent glands located on either side of the anus in both males and females. The females also possess paired scent glands on either side of the vulva. The scent of Binturong musk is often compared to that of warm buttered popcorn and cornbread. The Binturong brushes its tail against trees and howls to announce its presence to other Binturongs."<br />
<br />
[via: http://gaiwan.tumblr.com/post/5065673923/the-scent-of-binturong-musk-is-often-compared-to ]

"Aerosolized pig brains [see first paragraph] and various forms of weaponized air suggest we have underestimated the presence of air, and what it can potentially do. Whatever the spur, we need to take seriously the materiality of air. And today, in fact, a growing number of artists and architects are engaging air in new ways. They are exploring air as a design component, studying how airborne particles can be manipulated into various textures, surfaces and spaces. They are transforming the scales at which architects typically work. And they are bringing the multiple temporalities of air into play through designs that actually collect and archive air from different times. This work could bring about a new consciousness and perhaps an expanded understanding of the meaning of a public architecture — an effort to reclaim the air from those who've attempted to control it in irresponsible and dangerous ways."

"smell & taste evolved to evoke strong emotions because they were critical to finding food & mates & avoiding poisons & predators. When we taste a food, brain searches its memory to find pattern from past experience that flavor belongs to. Then it uses that pattern to create perception of flavor, including evaluation of its desirability.

"The smell of:

"Odor-obsessed weirdos in Japan now have a place to hang out on the net: Nioibu.com. The site allows users to sign up and enter reports of odors they encounter, tracking the stinky locations using markers on Google Maps. A few examples: watermelon smell, ferret odor, old lady stench(”grandma smell”), gasoline fumes, and curry."

"Sometimes the smell of body odor means more than just “Wash me!” A person whose sweat starts to smell fruity may have developed diabetes, and an ammonia smell may indicate liver or kidney disease. Odor of rotting fish may signal trimethylaminuria —

"researcher at Mexico’s National Autonomous University in Mexico City and her team found that residents of the capital were less able to detect common odors like coffee and orange juice than those in a nearby town with low air pollution."

"1) Weather control is the future of urban design. 2) If a city wants to attract new residents it should try scenting the snow."

"Five ways of mapping the world. One story about people who make maps the traditional way—by drawing things we can see. And other stories about people who map the world using smell, sound, touch, and taste. The world redrawn by the five senses."

"It makes me wonder about the sensory deprivation of our students when so much of their learning comes from interacting with a screen...It makes me wonder if instead of a curriculum of questions we need a curriculum of smells and tastes."

"Every Apollo astronaut did it. They couldn't touch their noses to the lunar surface. But, after every moonwalk (or "EVA"), they would tramp the stuff back inside the lander."