Smell, Belonging, and Planetary Health: Reflections on Atmospheres of Belonging
Cover Image provided courtesy of Lauryn Mannigel.
In 2024, The Leonardo-ASU Initiative launched the Planetary Health Research Seed Grant (PHRSG) program—a funding initiative designed to support interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of art, science, and planetary health. Made possible through support from Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and the Global Futures Laboratory, the program empowers emerging researchers to pursue experimental, collaborative work that might not otherwise find a home within traditional disciplinary structures.
One of the inaugural projects funded through PHRSG was Atmospheres of Belonging, an art-science collaboration exploring how smell, often overlooked yet deeply visceral, shapes our sense of belonging within communities. The project, spearheaded by ASU faculty Christy Spackman and Byron Lahey and PhD candidate Lauryn Mannigel, engaged residents of Mesa, Arizona through participatory research, archival inquiry, and sensory-based artistic practice.
Last year, Leonardo Program Manager Jenny Strickland reconnected with Lauryn Mannigel to reflect on how Atmospheres of Belonging has continued to evolve beyond the initial grant period. In the interview below, Mannigel shares insights into the project’s development, the role PHRSG played in shaping her research trajectory, and why funding programs like this are critical for student researchers navigating interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work today.
Jenny Strickland: Can you give a quick refresher on your PHRSG project and your contribution—what did you focus on and what excited you about it?
Lauryn Mannigel: In collaboration with two faculty members from Arizona State University (ASU), I co-created Atmospheres of Belonging. I worked with Christy Spackman, Associate Professor of Art-Science, jointly appointed between the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the School of Arts, Media, and Engineering, where she leads the Sensory Labor(atory), and Byron Lahey, a Clinical Assistant Professor of Expressive Robotics and Physical Computing in the School of Arts, Media, and Engineering.
Our art-science project drew together insights from food and sensory science, chemistry, sensory ethnography, history, sculpture, and the digital and participatory arts. We explored how experiences of smells shape our visceral sense of belonging. Over the course of the project year, we implemented a three-phase practice-based research approach. In Phase 1, we engaged with people in Mesa about smells and began 'cataloging' Mesa's 'Olfactory Library.' In Phase 2, we conducted archival research on experiences related to smell. In Phase 3, we created a snapshot of Mesa's deeply felt olfactory atmospheres by combining insights from Phases 1 and 2 into a kinetic sculpture that released scents into the exhibition space.
My main contribution was building connections with people in public spaces in Mesa and collecting their experiences with smell. I achieved this through a participatory storytelling project called '1 Story for 1 Story,' in partnership with the fantastic Mesa Public Libraries. I invited people to share their feelings of belonging—or the lack thereof—through their experiences with the taste and smell of food. I began each conversation by sharing my story and presenting three smell samples of context-specific olfactory memories that were pivotal in my life, with the aspiration of building trust before inviting them to share theirs. The most exciting part was this mutual sharing. I learned much from their stories. With their consent, I documented their experiences using their preferred format: audio, photo, video, or note-taking.
Photo credit: Byron Lahey.
JS: Looking back, how did receiving the grant shape your research or academic journey?
LM: Receiving this grant for our collaborative art-science project confirmed the value of smell in questions of belonging and, by extension, in planetary health. One often-overlooked agent shaping social spaces and communities, creating connections and thus promoting a sense of belonging, is our visceral sense of smell. While difficult to quantify or measure, it intrinsically shapes the sense of belonging people feel in their community. This grant recognition provided us with a platform to demonstrate how the social construction of smell profoundly shapes our human communication and ways of belonging. My PhD research explores the intersection of art and science, operating at the intersection of sensory studies, science and technology studies, new media art, and cultural theory through socially embedded, practice-based work. It was a significant event for our work to be recognized and supported through this grant. Moreover, this grant provided me with the opportunity and resources to support my ongoing exploration of the aesthetic and political potential of smell. I focus on smell as both a medium and a tool to explore how individuals perceive, judge, and feel about themselves, others, and their environment through practice-based and artistic methods. My engagement in collecting stories about feelings of belonging evoked by the taste and smell of food is a way of examining the assumptions of the illusion of contextual detachment and neutrality in knowledge production in Western society and science.
JS: Did the grant help open any doors—new collaborations, publications, conference opportunities, or skills you developed?
LM: I learned a lot from this grant experience. For starters, it provided me with a unique opportunity to collaborate with Byron Lahey and Christy Spackman on an art-science research project. We are currently working on a book proposal that offers a meaningful opportunity to explore the underlying ideas and theories surrounding our practice-based process in greater depth.
Engaging with patrons of the Mesa Public Libraries through this project enabled me to develop a new practice-based research approach that involved participatory storytelling and navigating my new surroundings in the Phoenix metropolitan area. This experience deepened my context-specific cultural and social awareness, as well as my communication skills. Additionally, while contributing to the crafting of hundreds of sugar glass bottles based on mason jars and vintage medicine bottles, I gained in-depth knowledge of sugar glass as a material. The sugar glass bottles, or "vessels," as my collaborators refer to them, each carried a scent that reflected the nuanced relationships and feelings of belonging among people in Mesa we encountered.
Photo credit: Byron Lahey.
JS: If you were speaking to a student considering being involved in a PHRSG, what would you tell them?
LM: If you're seeking support for a collaborative and interdisciplinary art-science project, consider applying! You'll be in great hands as the PHRSG team is genuinely invested in the projects they fund and the art, science, and technology field at large. Guiding meetings to share questions or discuss challenges is part of the dedicated support and resource-sharing Leonardo offers.
JS: Why do you think funding programs like this are important for student researchers?
LM: A program like PHRSG is a rare and valuable art-science funding opportunity for student researchers aiming to engage in interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary collaborative creative research with faculty and seek to tackle critical planetary health challenges globally. Beyond financial support, PHRSG offers student researchers a platform through publication that allows their work to be visible and accessible to Leonardo's vast global network of transdisciplinary research challenging disciplinary boundaries, legitimizing and documenting art-science-technology research. Having the opportunity to participate in this professionalizing grant, we (student researchers) can take agency in shaping our post-degree future(s) by exploring our inter- or transdisciplinary creative research.
For those in the Phoenix metropolitan area who have connections to Mesa, you can contribute work by sharing your smell experiences and memories via an interview. Express your interest in this short survey which offers a way to share your reflections and help shape future iterations of the work. To learn more about the project, its upcoming activities, and Lauryn’s broader creative research practice, visit her Website.
