LONDON – For hundreds of years, plague and other epidemics have led people to believe that the disease is not caused by diseases or flea bites, but by unpleasant odors. To purify the air around them, they will burn rosemary and hot tar.
Historians say the scent was common on London’s hurricanes during the Great Plague of the 17th century.
Now, as the world faces another widespread epidemic, a team of historians and scientists from six European countries wants to identify and classify the most common fragrances of daily life in Europe from the 16th century to the early 20th century and study what changes in society over time. Is revealed.
Week .. The million-dollar “Oderopa” project, unveiled this week, will use artificial intelligence to print more than ૨ 250,000,000 images and thousands of texts in seven languages, including medical textbooks, novels and magazines. Researchers will use machine learning and artificial intelligence to train computers to analyze the odor references of texts such as incense and tobacco.
Once catalyzed, researchers will work with chemists and perfumers, recreating about 120 fragrances in the hope that museum curators will incorporate some of the fragrances into the exhibits to make them more immersive or memorable for visitors.
The three-year project, funded by the European Union, will include guidelines on how museums can use odors in exhibitions. The use of odors in exhibits could make museums more comfortable for people who are blind or have limited vision, historians said.
An assistant professor of early modern European history at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England. “Often museums are unsure of how they will use odors in their spaces,” said William Toulette.
Plans for the project, which is set to begin in January, began before the epidemic, but researchers say the coronavirus, which has changed the smell of cities and can cause some people to lose the smell, illustrates how fragrances and societies reflect each other.
During past epidemics, Miasma’s theory, which believed that bad smoke was a marker of disease transmission, was at the center of how people view the spread of infection.
Now once again, people are particularly absorbed by the scent around them and sometimes worry that if they can smell someone standing nearby, that person is in their aerosol atmosphere and so close, says Dr. Professor of Cultural History. Said Inger Lymens. At Bridge University Amsterdam. “Yet, odor becomes an indicator of possible disease and infection.”
And the downdown measures have changed the scent of the city, with fewer cars on the road and less odors flowing from restaurants to the streets. The researchers said the changes shed light on how communities smell and find clues about the historical trend of disease and other cultural aspects of daily life. Sense has largely been overlooked in pedagogy, but it has received more attention in the last decade.
“With the smell, you can open up questions about national culture, global culture, differences between communities without immediately quarreling,” Dr. Lee said. Liemens said added fragrances come from museum exhibits or classrooms, so people are open to discussions. They don’t always do that when discussing other issues of national identity. “This is an open topic and it has a great research and communication aspect.”
Dr Liemens said researchers are not only interested in studying the good smells of past centuries, but also the smell of dung or industrial industrialization and the smell of sewage in some European cities. To help people connect with the past, they, too, can be distributed to museums so they don’t scare visitors.
“What we want to do, together with disgusting artists, is to think about how you can bring that story to the nose – and how you can make people realize what they’ve done with industrial industrialization in Europe.” “It’s a challenge.”
