GAYIL NALLS: VOICE ARTIST ACCOUNT

The World Sensorium: Ireland Project

The World Sensorium: Ireland project is an arts-led, immersive exploration of Ireland’s rich olfactory heritage, where tradition, ecology, and cultural memory converge. This initiative was made possible in part by the VOICE project of the European Commission's Horizon Europe Programme, and their partnerships with INOVA+ (Portugal), Stichting WAAG Society (Netherlands), SMARTlab-Inclusive Design Research Centre at University College Dublin (Ireland), EURICE (Germany), FutureFocus21c (Ireland), RISE (Croatia), the Royal College of Art London (United Kingdom), and Brunel University London (United Kingdom). Living Iveragh (Ireland) served as the local host organization.

Conducted from 2024 to 2025, this project deepens connections to Ireland’s natural world, celebrating the sensory stories rooted in its landscapes. Collaborative research with local communities, peatland experts, biodiversity specialists, ecologists, and artists capture and safeguard Ireland’s distinctive aromatic legacy.

As part of the broader World Sensorium initiative—which inspires global reflection on scent, culture, and memory—the Ireland project documents treasured plant life and peatland traditions. Central to this new effort is a dialogue around Ireland’s transition away from turf burning. For centuries, turf (or peat) has been a cornerstone of Irish life, providing warmth, livelihoods, and cultural identity. Prior to the year 2000, Turf was named by the Irish government as the most culturally significant natural scent to the Irish people for the World Sensorium project. Further history and information can be read on the Ireland country page. However, as Ireland transitions to sustainable practices, the World Sensorium: Project addresses the shift in redefining relationships with peatlands, fosters conservation awareness, and raises questions about balancing cultural heritage preservation with ecosystem protection and identifying culturally important aromatic plants.

World Sensorium 2025: Population Research, Formulation Development, and Blending

In October and November 2024, the second edition of the World Olfactory Social Sculpture, World Sensorium 2025 was completed. Scent—an often-overlooked medium—provides profound opportunities for fostering community connection, empathy, and understanding. Olfactory experiences transcend cultural, social, and linguistic barriers, offering a unique mode of relational and contextual knowing.

In World Sensorium, the significant plant scent of each country is represented proportionally by the percentage of its population, ensuring that everyone is accounted for. To make World Sensorium 2025 resonate both globally and locally, updated population projection research played a pivotal role. Comparative studies across diverse cultural and geographical contexts explored how communities connect with olfactory heritage. Utilizing databases such as database.earth and projections from population.un.org, the research developed accurate formulas reflecting global and localized sensory memory through the world scent.

The resulting formula combined world-cultural scent mapping with universal and place-specific olfactory experiences, capturing humanity’s interconnectedness with the natural world. Over several weeks, raw materials were gathered, and sub-blends were created. By November World Sensorium 2025 was complete.

The World Sensorium: Ireland Event

Held on Saturday, November 16, 2024, in Cahersiveen, County Kerry, as part of the Climate Ceardaíocht Festival, World Sensorium: Ireland brought together an engaged audience to experience World Sensorium 2025 and explore Ireland's olfactory heritage and environmental challenges.

Alongside the immersive World Sensorium 2025 presentation, distinguished speakers enriched the program. Mary Noland shared insights into the region’s cultural and ecological traditions, Breandán O’Caoimh highlighted community-driven environmental initiatives, and Vincent Hyland captivated attendees with his biodiversity expertise. Together, we fostered a dialogue on preserving Ireland’s aromatic flora and environment while addressing climate change.

Educational materials I created—How You Can Play a Role in Bog Preservation and What You Can Do to Save the Ocean—were distributed to attendees, local school science classes, and community members, inspiring collective action.

In a celebration of the beauty and significance of Ireland’s natural world, the event launched the “Vote for Your Favorite Aromatic Plant of Ireland” campaign, inviting the public to celebrate Ireland’s botanical heritage. Through the digital platform, people can vote on iconic aromatic plants, share personal anecdotes, and engage with educational content about the plant’s ecological and cultural significance. This campaign also supports an understanding of Ireland’s sensorial map, capturing the scents defining its cultural identity. Currently, Bog Myrtle and Gorse are tied for receiving the most votes, with honeysuckle being the most significant write-in. It, along with Dog Rose, will be added to the voting profile options. VOTE HERE

Community Insights and Intergenerational Challenges

Engaging with the Kerry community illuminated the profound role of olfactory heritage in cultural identity and memory, particularly among older generations. Their vivid recollections of natural scents contrasted sharply with younger generations' detachment from natural aromatics, often associating them with commercial products rather than ecosystems.

This generational divide underscores the urgency of reconnecting younger individuals with the natural world. Simple acts, such as smelling flowers or trees, are increasingly absent from their experiences. Addressing this disconnection has become a priority, emphasizing rewilding young minds through sensory engagement and environmental education.

World Sensorium Newsletter and the latest edition of Plantings

The December issue of the World Sensorium Newsletter and the latest edition of Plantings, the journal of the World Sensorium Conservancy, were both entirely devoted to World Sensorium: Ireland. These special issues highlight the efforts to preserve Ireland’s olfactory and botanical heritage while addressing critical environmental challenges, such as climate change and biodiversity loss.

The December newsletter provided readers with an in-depth look at the ongoing World Sensorium: Ireland initiative. The project’s focus on creating a sensorial map of Ireland—documenting the unique scents of its aromatic plants and peatlands—takes center stage.

The December issue of Plantings took a more academic and artistic approach, exploring Ireland’s botanical and cultural legacy through essays, research, and creative contributions. Highlights include scholarly articles examining the ecological importance of peatlands and the traditional uses of aromatic plants in Irish folklore and medicine. Contributors included Anita McKeown, Yvonne Buckley, Mary Nolan, Vincent Hyland, and Margaux Crump. Creative contributions include a film and performance artwork by Laura Grissard inspired by the scents and bog landscapes. Keeping with the exploration of the chemical senses related to Ireland and our ongoing Eat More Plants column was a recipe prepared by Mo Stafford.

Reflections and Future Directions

The next step is to finish the documentary and its screening and distribution plan throughout Ireland. In the meantime, there will be research updates on voting on Ireland’s aromatic flora and climate change’s impact on biodiversity and conservation efforts to mitigate these effects. World Sensorium: Ireland will continue with spotlights featuring grassroots efforts to reconnect local communities with their olfactory heritage, ongoing storytelling on the World Sensorium: Ireland website, aromatic plant profiles on social media, and other educational projects that are in progress with partners in Cahersiveen. This project also continues to serve as a platform to amplify Indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge, emphasizing the role of Irish cultural practices in sustainable living.

The Newsletter and Plantings both serve as a rallying cry for the protection of Ireland’s natural and cultural treasures. By shining a light on Ireland’s unique aromatic plants and their role in the ecosystem, both publications aim to inspire a global audience to engage with and support all critical conservation efforts. Through storytelling, science, and art, we will invite readers to become active participants in shaping a future where olfactory heritage thrives amidst environmental change.

By using participatory research methods, I gathered qualitative insights through recorded conversations, storytelling sessions, and interviews. These collaborations enriched the project while fostering shared ownership among the community. Video footage captured during this time will amplify diverse voices for the documentary.

The project underscored the value of intergenerational dialogue in fostering environmental stewardship. Older generations’ enthusiasm for sharing scent memories highlighted a deep cultural connection to nature, while the younger generation’s detachment raised critical eco-social questions.

How can World Sensorium: Ireland bridge this gap? How can olfactory heritage deepen ecological awareness among youth?

Collaborations with Anita McKeown and June O’Connell aim to address these challenges. Together, we’ve planned initiatives incorporating iconic flora and scent education into school curriculums, fostering connections between generations.

Aligning with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), the project promotes ecological consciousness and sustainable living through olfactory heritage preservation.

Looking forward, the “Vote for Your Favorite Aromatic Plant of Ireland” campaign and the forthcoming documentary screenings will expand the project’s national reach, preserving Ireland’s sensory traditions while inspiring global communities to shape a sustainable, interconnected future. We will work with Lizbeth Goodman, head of SMARTlab UCD, in this endeavor.

This event and project have reaffirmed the transformative power of scent to build empathy, reduce conflict, and foster shared understanding—the experience of World Sensorium 2025 worked as a call to action for reconnecting with the natural world and preserving cultural heritage while protecting ecosystems.