Gallery
Project overview
A provocative debate format confronting the promise of digitally replicated senses through direct immersion in physical, multisensory experience.
The initiative strategically contrasted theoretical discourse on digital sensory futures with embodied reality, using the experimental perfume “Hmmosphere”, a scent designed by The Hmm to capture the “smell of the internet” as both a critical tool and sensory intervention. The scent operated as a living metaphor, exposing the gap between technologised abstraction and the irreducible complexity of human perception.
Main objectives
The project aimed to challenge the narrative that technology can fully simulate human sensory experience by:
☀︎ Transforming an intellectual debate into a physically felt encounter
☀︎ Demonstrating the limitations of digital sensory reproduction through direct embodied contrast
☀︎ Reclaiming the body as a site of knowledge, perception, and resistance to techno-solutionism
Main reflection
By inviting participants to experience a “digital smell” in physical form, the format generated cognitive dissonance that triggered deeper critical reflection.
The multisensory intervention increased engagement and shifted the discussion from speculative futurism to present-moment awareness, revealing how fragile and performative many techno-utopian claims become when confronted with lived sensory reality.
This experiment revealed that the most powerful critique of digital overreach lies not in theoretical opposition, but in reactivating the body as a source of intelligence.
True discourse on digital futures must remain rooted in lived, sensory experience reminding us that what makes us human cannot be fully downloaded, simulated, or replaced.