LASER Talks in Jerusalem
Olfactory Art: Beyond the Digital

The INEMEA Association, in collaboration with CYLAND, presents a discussion exploring olfactory art as a unique intersection of science and creativity, where smell reshapes perception, memory, and the boundaries of contemporary art.

Participants: Yehuda Roth, Daria Kesler, Lilia Chak  

Chaired by: Galina Bleikh
Moderated by: Daria Kesler

EVENT INFO

When: Wednesday, July 29, 2026, at 7:00 PM (UTC +3 | GMT +3) | Find your timezone HERE

Where: Hybrid event
   In-person: The President Hotel Art Center, Ahad Ha-Am str. 3, Jerusalem, Israel.
   Online: Access via Zoom (please register to receive the Zoom link) 

Website: INEMEA 

Smell is one of the most fundamental ways living beings perceive and communicate with the world. Unlike images, sounds, or text, it cannot yet be truly digitized or experienced remotely. At the same time, scent has a unique ability to evoke memory, emotion, and a sense of presence, shaping human behavior in ways that often bypass conscious thought. As contemporary art continues to expand its boundaries, olfactory art has emerged as a unique field where science, perception, neuroscience, and creativity converge. This LASER Talk explores how smell transforms artistic experience while opening new perspectives on memory, communication, history, and human connection.

Yehuda Roth presents "Olfactory Art". Although increasingly explored by contemporary artists, olfactory art remains rare and controversial. Smell challenges conventional aesthetics, is difficult to describe in language, and presents unique technical problems of dispersion, reproducibility, and preservation. Drawing on anatomical and physiological insights, Roth discusses the possibilities and limitations of scent in exhibition spaces, showing how smell can deepen attention, evoke contemplation, enrich artistic experience — or, conversely, become distracting or even disturbing.

Daria Kesler presents "Soothing," an olfactory installation created with Valentina Makarova. Inspired by the aroma of breast milk and developed in collaboration with immunologists and a professional flavorist, the project investigates scent as a medium capable of evoking safety, reducing aggression, and triggering deep emotional memory through the Proust effect. It explores the potential of smell as both an artistic material and a tool for human connection.

Lilia Chak presents "A Lost Fragrance and the Future of Smell." What did the ancient world smell like, and can those scents be experienced again today? Through the revival of afarsemon — the legendary aromatic plant of ancient Judea — this talk explores how archaeology, archaeobotany, botany, biochemistry, and artistic practice can recover forgotten scents and transform them into new cultural and artistic experiences. The presentation also considers how reconstructed fragrances may inspire contemporary olfactory art while reconnecting us with history through direct sensory experience.

Bios

Chair:
Galina Bleikh
Israel

A multidisciplinary artist. Her creative expertise spans a rich spectrum of artistic domains, encompassing AI, 3D modeling, AR and VR, bio-art, generative art, and more. At the heart of her artistic pursuit lies a fascination with the profound synergy between the emerging artificial reality and its transformative interaction with human experience through art. Galina graduated from the Stieglitz St. Petersburg State Academy of Art and Industry (MA). Since 1993, lives in Jerusalem. Galina is a cofounder of the INEMEA Association for Art, Culture, and Education and the INEMEA Jerusalem Art & Science lab. Since 2024, Galina has become a host of Leonardo/ISAST Laser Talks Jerusalem. Galina takes part in many exhibitions and conferences. Among them: The CICA Museum of Modern Art, Republic of Korea (3 group exhibitions: 2025, 2024, 2023, and solo: 2025 and 2021), Jerusalem Biennale (co-curator and participating artist, 2023–2024), ArtPlatform-On, Republic of Korea (2022), NordArt, Germany (2019), Haifa Museum of Art, Israel (2018), LA Art Show USA (2013), etc (+60). 
bleikh.art

Speakers 
Prof. Yehudah Roth
Israel

Visual artist, otorhinolaryngology surgeon, former chairmen of a large hospital department, professor at Tel Aviv University Faculty of Medicine. Among versatile research areas Investigates nasal breathing, defense systems and olfaction. Explores the connections between science and art, scientific curator of the "Thinking Ahead" forum of scientists and artists, has presented diverse paintings, sculptures and installations in many exhibitions in Israel and abroad, participated and organized a large olfactory art exhibition in 2021, co-facilitated a multidisciplinary scent research forum at the School of Cultural Studies at Tel Aviv University, lectures in museums and art schools. Co-curated the Beyond the Skin art and science project in the Venice Art Academy at the 2024 Biennale. B. 1957.

Daria Kesler
Israel

Cross-disciplinary researcher and artist. Works with human and machine-generated texts, sounds, documentaries, scents, and video art. Daria is interested in using modern technologies and science to spread empathy towards all species. She wants to explore new ways of co-living between technology, human, plants, and animals. Education: Master of Art&Science (Inovice), ITMO, Russia, Major studies in Hybrid (Technological and Bio) Art.

Llila Chak, PhD
Israel

Lilia Chak (b. 1966, St. Petersburg) is an Israeli artist, designer, and science-art researcher based in Jerusalem. Her interdisciplinary practice spans new media, Bio-art, Dendro-art, AI-generated art, video, photography, and installation. She holds a PhD from the Art & Science Department at Sorbonne University (2022) and is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Bar-Ilan University, researching AI-driven directions in Bio-art. Chak is the author of Contemporary Practices in Bio-art: When a Tree Becomes an Artwork (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023) and introduced the term “Dendro-art” into international discourse. Her work has been shown internationally in venues including Ars Electronica, BOZAR, Shenzhen Art Museum, CICA Museum, Negev Museum of Art, Museo Orto Botanico Rome, and Matsudo International Science Art Festival. She has received multiple awards, including recognitions from WMF PROMPT Magazine, Chung-Ang University’s AIIF, and Project 59 Inc. Chak coordinates Leonardo/ISAST LASER Talks in Jerusalem and teaches “Art, Biology and Ecology” at Shenkar College.
www.chak-art.gala-studio.com

The Leonardo/ISAST LASERs are a program of international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for informal presentations, performances and conversations with the wider public. The mission of the LASERs is to encourage contribution to the cultural environment of a region by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building to over 50 cities around the world. To learn more about how our LASER Hosts and to visit a LASER near you please visit our website. @lasertalks

INEMEA (Israel / International New Media Art) is a Jerusalem nonprofit association in Art, Culture, and Education. Founded in 2023, INEMEA brings together Israeli and International artists, scientists, thinkers, and technologists. Through interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building, INEMEA encourages contributions to the cultural environment of Israel as well as international relations and contacts with organizations sharing a similar mission. The association is the founder of Art & Science INEMEA Lab.

CYLAND is a nonprofit organization founded in 2007 by independent artists and curators. CYLAND is promoting the emergence of new forms of art and high technology interactions, developing professional connections between artists, curators, engineers and programmers around the world.