“Open your eyes, listen and trust your sense of smell”. With these recommendations as a preamble, we immediately understand that the exhibition The sensory odyssey of the National Natural History Museum in Paris is aptly named.
Surrounded by the huge screens covering the walls, we find ourselves alternately immersed in eight exotic natural environments where few individuals have the opportunity to set foot. Whether it leads to the heart of the Guyanese rainforest or the middle of the ocean, the route literally invites you to feel nature from around the world and celebrates biodiversity. By appealing to our sense of smell, hearing and sight, the immersion is total.
At the forefront of a foraging
“The immersive and interactive installation combines very high definition video projection of impressive realism content with a set of original visual, sound and olfactory effects”, praises Gwenaël Allan, president and founder of the Sensory Odyssey studio and co-author of the exposure.
In the second room, immersed in the dark with our senses as the only landmarks, the cries of animals and the smell that come to us allow us to guess that we are in the savannah, near a point of water where the animals come to drink. A little further, we are transported in the middle of a meadow, on the scale of insects, and we witness the foraging of flowers by bees. A gust of wind, and the floral scent comes to us – even while we are wearing a mask! In total, about twenty smells accompany our walk among these ecosystems.
“An experience at the top of technical possibilities”
“Unconventional collaborative work” was necessary to achieve such results. For six years, directors, museographers, scenographers, neuroscientists, perfumers, creators of special sensory effects, Museum researchers…. participated in the project. The Museum says it wanted to offer visitors “an experience at the top of technical possibilities but also scientifically fair and realistic”.
Almost all of the videos shown were shot by Sensory Odyssey. The soundscapes and the different smells were also mostly recorded and created for the occasion. If, for now, The sensory odyssey is installed in Paris until July 4, she should travel internationally from next September.