sens – Festival for Multisensory Perception adds an entire dimension to the spectrum of immersive arts: smell. From December 11 to 20, the ZiMMT celebrates a feast for the senses with 3D audio concerts, a fragrant exhibition and performances. With workshops and lectures, sens is also an exchange platform for new developments in the field of 3D audio – and creates space for innovative cross-media approaches to olfactory art, which works with smells and has rarely been the focus of attention to date.

The sense of smell is particularly closely linked to our feelings and memories. This is because, unlike sight and hearing, olfactory stimuli reach the cerebral cortex unfiltered, where conscious perception occurs and emotions or memory are triggered. Nevertheless, smells have so far led a marginal existence in the media. As far back as its history, the arts have focused on the (re)production of visual and acoustic stimuli – today, images and sounds can be stored and copied in seconds. Not so with smell: although researchers have already been able to decipher the chemical “code” of some scents, imitating or preserving the olfactory world outside of personal memory remains a complex process to this day.

We look forward to hearing, seeing, smelling, feeling and exchanging ideas with internationally renowned musicians and (olfactory) artists.