Olfactory Heritage
We know the hundreds of scents that we perceive every day have an impact on the way we think, feel and behave. Less is known about how they affect the way we engage with history and heritage: part of our research explores how certain smells can help the retention of memories and knowledge in a museum context, make heritage more inclusive and promote well-being.
We engage in discussions with scientists, heritage and policy professionals in a variety of expert forums; our findings are published in leading academic journals in the heritage science, conservation, history, chemistry and cultural studies. Our work has reached a wider audience and engaged the public in a conversation about smell and heritage.聽
- Media Engagement
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For other examples of media engagement, including international press, please see .
- Publications
- M. Strli膷, J. Thomas, T. Trafela, L. Cs茅falvayov谩, I. Kralj Cigi膰, J. Kolar, M. Cassar: 鈥淢aterial Degradomics: on the Smell of Old Books鈥, Anal Chem. 81 (2009) 8617-8622.
- M. Strli膷, E. Menart, I. Kralj Cigi膰, G. de Bruin, J. Kolar, M. Cassar: 鈥淓mission of volatiles and reactive oxygen species during degradation of iron gall ink鈥, Polym. Degrad. Stab., 95 (2010) 66-71.
- M. Strli膷, I. Kralj Cigi膰, A. Mo啪ir, G. de Bruin, J. Kolar, M. Cassar: 鈥淭he Effect of Volatile Organic Compounds and Hypoxia on Paper Degradation鈥,聽Polym Degrad. Stab., 96 (2011) 608-615.
- K. Curran, M. Strli膷: 鈥淧olymers and Volatiles: Using VOC Analysis for Improved Conservation of Plastic and Rubber Objects鈥, Stud. Conserv., 60 (2015) 1-14.
- Bembibre, C; Strli膷, M; (2017) Smell of heritage: a framework for the identification, analysis and archival of historic odours. Heritage Science, 5 (1) 10.1186/s40494-016-0114-1).
- Bembibre Jacobo, C; Barratt, S; Vera, L; Strli膷, M; (2017) Smelling the past: a case study for identification, analysis and archival of historic pot-pourri as a heritage smell. In: Bridgland, J, (ed.) ICOM-CC 18th Triennial Conference Preprints, Copenhagen, 4-8 September 2017. (pp. p. 1601). Paris: International Council of Museums.
- K. Curran, M. Underhill, J. Grau-Bove, T. Fearn, L. T. Gibson, M. Strli膷: 鈥漇niffing out Decay: classifying degraded modern polymeric museum artefacts by their smell鈥, Angew. Chem., 57 (2018) 7336-7340, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201712278.
- F. Portoni, J. Grau-Bov茅, M. Strli膷: 鈥淎 non-invasive, non-destructive technique to quantify naphthalene emission rates from museum objects鈥, Heritage Science 7 (2019) #58.