You can view the presentation and the video documentation of the final setup by Yellow 5 (Hanna Borg | Johanna Schneider | Smitha Rao Aluri)

This post is a reflection of our project, Smells in Trees, upon completion. We created an instruction set for strangers in New York City, without using any form of spoke or written language. By making use of the sense of ‘smell’, we hung bags of spices and herbs in a public space.

The site change: The intended site was The High Line and we checked the rules and regulations on the website and site signage (during our initial site visit) to ensure that we were good to go. In hindsight, this was probably not a great assumption on our part and we should have personally checked with the concerned authorities. Two seconds into our test run, just as Johanna and I looped a ribbon over a tree branch, a staff member approached us and asked us to stop. “You’re not allowed to hang anything to ‘hard property’ of the High Line and the trees are considered hard property”, he said. We told him that we were not hurting the trees and the bags very very light but he insisted that the High Line cops would come and remove it. Shocked, confused and embarrassed (since this happened in front of everyone), we left. This was the most discomfortable I felt during the project.

We decided to go ahead with Jackson Square Park, a nearby urban park in Greenwich. Triangular in plan with arched entrances on each side that overlooked a central, beautiful fountain, the new site had a lot of similar properties as the High Line. In the end, the site change proved to be a blessing in disguise – better location, same intended audience / target group.

• lots of foot traffic
• couples, friends, family, people with pets
• people eating, chatting, reading, pedestrians

The entrance arch we picked:

• people passing through the arch – entry/exit
• only arch with foliage
• direct view of the the fountain
• people walking on the sidewalk 
• citi bike stand increased pedestrian traffic

 

Based on a survey filled up by friends, family and students on D12, we picked what ‘smells’ to hang for our final run:

Hanging the bags: As a short person, I couldn’t hang the bags and had to watch Johanna and Hanna put them up while I cut the ribbons and tied the bags. Initially, I couldn’t even reach the bags (during our test run) and had to jump to smell them. This, I felt was an interesting element of play to add to the interaction. During our final setup, we hung bags at different heights, not too high (where the average person couldn’t reach) and not too low (which would be more of a hindrance as the bag hit people’s chests as the walked by). We also wanted to ensure that the bags were approximately at the level of a person’s face so they could get the smell the bags more easily.

Click here to watch a video of us hanging the bags

Design Affordance: When we observed people over a period of two hours, it was interesting to see the range of reactions we could get from them based on the height and position of the bags. Based on how people’s interactions, we made small alterations:

1- added a red ribbon to hang the bags – for more visibility

• curious glances
• many ducked / re-oriented themselves to pass under the bags
• some clicked pictures of the bags
• short people jumped to reach – sense of excitement

2- hung cards with nose illustrations and ?

• made a huge difference and people started smelling the bags
• people began flipping the cards pens 

3- added a pen to the cards 

• people began writing/guessing what the smells were – voila!
• someone even drew nose rings on the nose illustration!

It was great collaborating with Johanna and Hanna as through the course of two weeks, we got to know each other better. When we were keenly observing people, they seemed to just walk or duck under as they passed. Maybe they could sense that they were being observed? When three of us sat by the fountain and chatted away over bags of popcorn, people actually began interacting with the bags! This group project was my first time working with international students. So far, I’ve only ever worked with other Indians (in school and college) so it was nice to learn from, and share ideas from different perspectives and experiences. This was also a different group dynamic for me. In my previous collaborations, I felt that I was somewhat the driving force or the person responsible for taking the project forward. Being a part of Yellow 5 was such a pleasant experience as there was equal pitching in, responsibility and involvement from the three of us.

 

Feedback, thoughts and questions:

“I highly appreciate the concept you tried. I think adding cards and pens was a nice idea to invite more people, causing more interaction. It is amazing so many people tried to smell it under this pandemic era.”- Joy Juyeon Kim

“This concept seems like it would continue to generate interactions in a future test if you just left the camera running maybe all day.” – Alex Modlin

“The time lapses of videos were great especially how the camera seemed be in a discrete area I loved this idea and I think you guys made it so well and I like how people were able to write on the cards their guesses” – Erin Kelly

“This is exciting to see people talking to strangers! and i think the smelling content is successful since it must be strong and lasting. I would love to see if the scale is bigger or any scoring system combined and see how it goes! great work i like it!!” – Kayla Chen

“This was really well done! I think that the graphics on the bags are very clear and I love how you hung the bags at a level that people had to duck or move to avoid them. I think this helped gather attention. It is also interesting to see that most people are hesitant to interact unless they already have someone else with them. Amazing interactions at the end!” – Emily Gary

“I think it’s a really effective project to get people involve. Next time maybe consider hanging the bags a little lower? Because I see quite a few people were struggling to reach the bags and maybe it helps to get more attention as well since people will have to running into it.” – Cynthia Yang

“When this project was first pitched in class I thought it would be really hard to get people to interact with it especially in the High Line. I think being forced to relocate to a different location with that establish entryway worked in your favor because it forced people to pass underneath it. I wonder if more colorful signage around the bags would peak peoples interest even further as it seems like some people maybe didn’t even visually notice them. How long were you all at the park for?” – Coby Sanchez

“I think this project is so well executed based on people’s feedbacks and experience. For example, the survey you did with 16 participants of their favorite smell, or the three round iterations you made on the recorded day. You expanded the idea and project based on your observations of people’s action feedbacks, which is amazing!”- Lynette Huang

“Good relocation spot – served as a brief disruption

Height seems both a blessing and an obstacle

I like how you added on more interactive elements over time

I love seeing the documentation from a low angle, to capture other animals too

Where & who did the initial survey?

Future idea could invite ideas of memory among strangers” – Jess Irish

“This was so nice to see I love the idea it is definitely something I would stop and interact with and adding the pens was a great touch of interaction and feedback which I loved, so well executed guys! You can for sure involve more smells in more places for more people!” – Ananya Karanwal