Olfactory Application in Museum Exhibition Design

• Main Authors: YEN, Shoou-Shyan, 嚴守賢
• Other Authors: LAI, Ying-Ying
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/94896150328009885663

碩士 === 國立臺灣藝術大學 === 藝術管理與文化政策研究所 === 102 === Sense of smell, also known as Olfaction, is the sense which develops the earliest among the five human senses. It is closely related to “hippocampus” and “amygdala” of the brain. Olfaction has a great influence on memories and emotions but it has always been neglected. In recent years, the sense of smell has been gradually applied in artistic creation and marketing. The diversification of museum development shows more emphasis on multisensory integration progressively. However, the application of olfactory is still rare in academic research. This research collects both foreign and domestic exhibitions and analyzes three exhibitions. They are “Distilling the Soul’s Fragrance: Traditional Chinese Incense Culture” at the National Museum of History, “Refining Fragrance: The History of Camphor Industry and Nanmen Factory” at the National Taiwan Museum-Nanmen Park, and “Air Lab” at Kaohsiung Pier-2 Art Center. It also explores the design aspects of contributors and observes the museum visitors' point of view. The purpose of this study is as follows: 1. Analyzes olfactory exhibition design and roles. 2. Reviews the effects of olfactory exhibitions. 3. Excavates the limitations and feasibilityof olfactory exhibitions. This study concludes that olfactory exhibitions are most commonly used of the interactive way. Because of the diversity of the exhibitions, smell can become a strong supporting role in museums which emphasize educational function, and also can play a leading role in art exhibitions. In this research, Stephen Bitgood's “Visitor Measures of Success” is applied to examine the effects of olfactory exhibitions. It shows that the olfactory application can change visitor’s behavior, convey messages and arouse visitor’s memory and emotion through related life experience, and also enhance knowledge acquisition. Although it has restrictions and needs to be carefully considered how to control and present the smell in the exhibition. Applying the sense of smell in museum exhibition is potential in the future.