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It is with great pleasure that we announce the launch of OLFAC, a European Research Council (ERC) project that aims to address fundamental questions concerning the stigmatizing and empowering agency of the olfactory. Since our start in October 2024, we’ve been diving nose-first into the fascinating world of olfactory performativity — and we’re excited to share some first insights and upcoming developments with you.
 
OLFAC is a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant Project (2024-2029), affiliated with the University of Arts in Linz (Austria), dedicated to investigating how smell intervenes in and shapes cultural, artistic, and political spheres. We explore how olfactory techniques and technologies are mobilised – whether in art practice, or through mechanisms of governance.

In a highly cross-disciplinary manner, through developing a theory of olfactory performativity, OLFAC opens new perspectives on the sensory dimensions, with our team working across the fields of Theatre and Performance studies, Dance Studies, East Asian Performance and Cultural Studies, as well as Histories of Knowledge.

Team OLFAC:
Univ. Prof. Dr. Silke Felber (Principal Investigator)
Dr. Freda Fiala (Post-Doc)
Dr. Julia Ostwald (Post-Doc)
Antonia Karácsonyi (Office Management)

Feel free to explore more about the project and our team on our website.

We gladly announce our upcoming transdisciplinary workshop on the intervening performativity of smell which will take place

from 3-5 December, 2025 at the
International Research Center for Cultural Studies (IFK) in Vienna.
 
The event will bring together a selected group of international scholars alongside OLFAC's Board Members. We envision it as a collaborative and open platform for exploring the myriad ways in which smell intervenes in cultural, social, governmental and artistic practices.

  
Prof. Dr. Jim Drobnick (Ontario College of Art & Design Toronto, Canada),  
Ass. Prof. Lindsey French (University of Maine, USA), 
Prof. Dr. Husan Hsu (UC Davis, USA),
Prof. Dr. Dorotheé King (University for Arts and Design Basel, Switzerland),
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Marco Tullio Liuzza (Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy),
PD Dr. Helene Loos (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany),
Alanna Lynch (Artist, Berlin),
Gwenn-Aël Lynn (Artist, Chicago and Paris),
Prof. Dr. Anna Menini (Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati Trieste (SISSA), Italy),
Clara Muller (Olfactory art historian and curator, Sancerre, France),
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Debra Riley Parr (Columbia College Chicago, USA),
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Brandon Woolf (NYU, USA)

May this first whiff of OLFAC linger and entice - there’s more to come in the air.

To stay informed about future developments, publications, and events related to OLFAC, we warmly invite you to
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