Sissel Tolaas @ Koç University, Istanbul
June 2012
Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations
Koç University
Istanbul, Turkey
As part of the Smellscapes of Eminönü, Istanbul project, world-renowned smell artist Sissel Tolaas presented an introduction her work and provided guiding inspiration for how to approach the challenge of archiving smell in the city of Istanbul.
About the artist
Sissel Tolaas was born Norway and is based in Berlin. She studied mathematics, linguistics, chemical science, languages, and visual art at Oslo, Warsaw, Moscow, St Petersburg and Oxford universities. Tolaas has been working actively in the area topic of Smell /Smell and Language Communications 1990, within different sciences, fields of art and design, and other disciplines. She established the SMELL RE_searchLab Berlin, on smell & communication / language, in Berlin in January 2004, supported by IFF (International Flavors & Fragrances Inc.)
Tolaas’s research has won recognition through numerous national and international scholarships, honours, and prizes. She is a founding member of the International Sleep Science and Technology Association, China/US/Africa/Europe. Tolaas also recently founded the FUTURE OF EDUCATION, in collaboration with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Future Education Platform Berlin. Tolaas has done City SmellScape research in several cities such as Paris, Stockholm, Detroit, Kansas City, Berlin, Oslo and London, and is currently working on Nuuk, Istanbul, Calcutta, and Cape Town. She was recently commissioned, together with Harvard GSD, to develop new a Concept of Living in Kuwait.
