Melisa Aslan

Summary

Smell the Glow is a wearable that translates the state of a community energy grid into scent. Renewable energy availability constantly shifts, yet we only learn about it by looking at the screen of Lumina, so the habits that would follow from it never form. The object, a small pin-like piece worn on the body, releases fresh floral or citrus notes when there is an energy surplus, and sharp, acrid ones when there is a deficit. Earthy, neutral scents mark balance. Because scent bypasses the rational and needs no notification, it lets people feel the grid instead of reading it, for instance at the moment they start the washing machine. The project moves from Lumina's ambient light and sound in the home to a constant, intimate bodily signal. It asks whether complex systems like energy, water or air can be understood through scent and touch rather than numbers.