OLFAC - Olfactormativity

Astronaut at a lecture desk making and serving tea.

Astronaut at a lecture desk making and serving tea.

Astronaut at a lecture desk making and serving tea.

A couple of photos from my performed lecture for the @olfac.bsky.social symposium in Vienna this past week. Thank you so much we all had a blast!

to conclude the second Day of the #Symposium, our Artists in Residency Paola Bianchi and Stefano Murgia performed their Piece "WERKSTATT Pathosmells". they developed the #olfactory and #choreographic work during their #residency in Linz. more info on our website! olfac.kunstuni-linz.at

Day 2 of the #OLFAC#Symposium was stimulating our #senses with fascinating lectures of Dorothée King and Hsuan L. Hsu. Gwenn-Aël Lynn took us to space with his lectureperformance. Also our OLFAC team members, Silke Felber, Julia Ostwald and Freda Fiala gave us their insights on the #olfactory. -->

Day 1 of the #OLFAC#Symposium: Athmospheres unfold. With Debra Riley Parr joining us online, Marco Tullio Liuzza giving us insights and a lecture performance full of Garlic by Brandon Woolf, finished by a #sensory performance by the collective Mai Ling, it smelled like a wonderful start! #olfactory

We warmly wish you a happy #NewYear2026! we're still looking back fondly on our #OLFAC #Symposium in Vienna last december, where we explored #Sensing across the #Humanities, #Sciences, and #Arts. Stay tuned for our recap, followed by exciting 2026 announcements!
#sensorystudies #olfactory

in two Days, Vienna will have a special #smell!

#OLFAC will host its #interdisciplinary #Symposium at the @ifk-vienna.bsky.social! Join us for Sensing across the Humanities, Sciences and Arts! the full Programm is on our Website: olfac.kunstuni-linz.at/olfac-sensin...

This week we welcomed choreographer Paola Bianchi and musician Stefano Murgia, who will be Artists in Residence with the ERC project #OLFAC until December 12, 2025.
At our Get Together, they explained their #choreographic and #olfactory research!

you can already spot the poster of our #OLFAC#Symposium all around Kunstuniversität Linz.
we are so excited for December 3rd-5th, where it'll be all about #sensing across the #humanities #sciences and #Arts!
See you in Vienna at the @ifk-vienna.bsky.social

Diesen Samstag hält Silke einen Vortrag mit dem Titel: »Making Sense: #Klimaungerechtigkeit und ihre #multisensorischen Resonanzräume«
im Zuge der Tagung des #iwk #Wien.
Mehr infos auch auf der #OLFAC Website!

Our Program for the #OLFAC#Symposium is out now!
We warmly welcome all those interested in the multisensory, critical, and imaginative dimensions of #smell to join us in Vienna!
More information on our Website! olfac.kunstuni-linz.at/olfac-sensin...
#sensory#olfactory#sciences#culturalstudies

this week, Freda Fiala will talk about
”Entangled Worlds and the Logistics of Chinese Display in the 1873 Wiener Weltausstellung"
at the Habsburg Central Europe in Global History Summer School in Prague! @ikwoeaw.bsky.social @czechacademy.bsky.social
#GlobalHistory #WorldExpositions #OLFAC

COMING UP!
3 – 5 December 2025 | @ifk-vienna.bsky.social

Join the first #Symposium of #OLFAC, bringing together researchers across the #humanities, #sciences, and #arts to explore the #olfactory dimensions of knowledge and experience.
#InterdisciplinaryStudies #SensoryHumanities #SaveTheDate

Alongside conducting research conversations, Freda visited museums, heritage sites, and local workshops where natural #camphor is still chopped, refined, and distilled by hand.
She'll share her insights at the first #OLFAC #Symposium in December - Stay tuned!

"The scent is unforgettable—sharp and crystalline, like a forest splitting open."
Freda Fiala conducted a fieldwork trip to #Taiwan to research the memory politics of the island’s #camphor 樟腦 trade - a historic global industry.

#Extraction #CulturalMemory #MaterialEcologies #OLFAC

Sensory Sciences Lecture Series The Sensory Sciences Lecture Series takes place on the second Thursday of each month at 16:15 Lectures are held by either two scientist from different faculties at FAU in pairs of two times 20 minutes...

www.chemistry.nat.fau.eu/aroma-smell-...

Pomander with musk ball, cross, and ring (apple of musk). Maker: Anonymous (Kulmbach?), mid-16th century. Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna.

What can an object the size of a plum reveal about the smellscapes of early modern Europe—and their gendered and racialized afterlives?
Tomorrow @fau.de, Silke will trace the pomander and discuss our #ERC project #OLFAC within the Sensory Lectures series — join via Zoom 👇 #olfactory #sensoryStudies

Exciting!

Julia Ostwald is a postdoctoral researcher for #ERC #OLFAC. In her research, she explores entanglements of aesthetics, sensual perceptions, and (body-)politics, as well as stagings of #breath, air, and #smell in #dance and movement practices in history.
#olfactory#sensorystudies

Freda Fiala is a cultural researcher whose work explores the entangled relations between Central Europe and East Asia. As a postdoctoral researcher in #ERC #OLFAC, her research focuses on how trans-cultural and trans-modern circuits shape identity and #sensory knowledges.
#olfactory #smellstudies

Silke Felber: "“Since I can remember, I have feverishly sought out situations and actors capable of making my senses reel. I long for moments when “those precious, experienced eyes” (to borrow Nabokov’s phrase) can no longer be trusted—when the intricate dance of my body’s tacit knowledge falters under the sudden intrusion of reason. I thirst for the fleeting illusion of movement conjured by a passing train, as though I myself were in motion; for objects whose misjudged weight sends my torso lurching upward in eerie haste. But what happens when the nose, too, is drawn into these moments of faltering? And might such stumblings unsettle the ingrained habits that our bodies, through years of socialization, have so deeply internalized?“ OLFAC

Silke Felber is the principal investigator of our #ERC -Project #OLFAC researching the intervening performativity of Smells. Her academic work transcends disciplinary boundaries, integrating Theatre, Cultural, Media, and Literary Studies.
read more about her work on our Website! #olfactory #sensory

Pfui oder hui? Gestank als Waffe, Duft als Potenzmittel Forscherinnen der Kunstuni Linz wollen Europas olfaktorisches Wissen rehabilitieren – und unser aller Nasen für die guten wie schlechten Gerüche, die uns umgeben, wieder schärfen.

Gestank als Waffe, Duft als Potenzmittel! Silke Felber im Interview mit @diepressecom.bsky.social über #Geruchsforschung und der Macht des Olfaktorischen!
#OLFAC #sensorystudies #olfactory #skunkwater

there's much to explore about the intervening performativity of smells! Check out our Website: olfac.kunstuni-linz.at
#sensorystudies #OLFAC #Olfactory

We look forward to sharing methods, results, and events — and to connecting with researchers and artists working with and on the senses.
#sensorystudies #ScienceComm

OLFAC explores how olfactory techniques and technologies are mobilised – in both artistic practice and through mechanisms of governance. By developing a theory of olfactory performativity, OLFAC opens new perspectives on sensory experience.

Our Team researches in a highly cross-disciplinary manner, involving #SensoryStudies #CulturalStudies #TheatreStudies #PerformanceStudies, #DanceStudies, #EastAsianStudies and #HistoryOfKnowledge!

We’re excited to introduce ourselves: OLFAC (Olfactormativity: Exploring The Intervening Performativity Of Smell), is a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant project (2024–2029), hosted at the University of Arts Linz (Austria).
#ERC #OLFAC #UniversityofArtsLinz #research