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Lange Nacht der Forschung, May 24, 2024, Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab How do we mourn what is disappearing? How do we sense what remains? In the performative olfactory procession DRAWING TREES WITH SCENT, the artistic research duo MUELLER-DIVJAK (Jeanette Müller & Paul Divjak), together with Lucie Strecker, staged a poetic and sensory farewell to disappearing forests. The work explores the connection between scent, memory, and loss, creating an ephemeral space where trees are drawn not with lines, but with scent molecules - fragile traces of what once was. Scientific studies have shown that forest atmospheres have a significant physiological effect on humans, largely due to the inhalation of volatile organic compounds released by trees. Yet, what happens when these forests vanish? What remains when nature is reduced to an echo? In response to this impending loss, the performance created an immersive scentscape, filling the air with carefully composed fragrances derived from tree species threatened by deforestation, habitat destruction, and climate change. At the heart of the performance was a silent, ritualistic mourning procession, in which Jeanette Müller and Lucie Strecker took on the roles of the "Widows of the Forest", dressed in black, carrying the olfactory presence of lost trees through the space. Meanwhile, Paul Divjak orchestrated the scent interventions, dispersing the delicate forest compositions into the atmosphere. Music by b.fleischmann created an additional sonic layer, weaving sound and scent into a multisensory requiem. Presented as part of the Lange Nacht der Forschung 2024 at the Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab, the performance engaged a diverse audience, inviting visitors to follow their noses and reflect on their own connections to nature. The event was widely shared on social media, as participants documented their intimate, embodied experience of scent-based storytelling. By shifting attention from the dominant visual sense to the olfactory and atmospheric, DRAWING TREES WITH SCENT questioned how we register ecological loss and challenged the audience to imagine new ways of sensing and remembering what is disappearing. #SLS #SENSING LIVING SYSTEMS #FWFPEEKProjekt #MUELLER-DIVJAK Jeanette Müller, Paul Divjak, Alexandra Graupner, Anna-Maria Irgang
