Kate McLean-MacKenzie is charting the world’s overlooked sense through an atlas of urban “smellscapes”.
The researcher at the University of Kent says smell remains largely absent from how we document places.
Her project invites people to take guided “smell walks”, recording scents, intensity, duration, and personal associations.
The results are turned into visual maps and narratives that reflect how cities are experienced through smell.
Since 2011, the atlas has mapped 40 locations, including Paris, Kyiv, Kolkata, and Glasgow.
McLean-MacKenzie stresses the work is subjective and focused on storytelling, not chemical accuracy.
Some participants describe poetic impressions, including one New Yorker who named a scent “the smell of shattered dreams”.
The maps capture fleeting moments, shaped by weather, movement, and time.
She hopes the atlas becomes a historical record as cities change, for example through cleaner transport.
Above all, she wants people to engage more fully with their senses when exploring the world.
