prehistoricsoul LAB
Sandris Murins
Latvia
Website: https://medium.com/scentgrapher
Instagram: sandrismurins
Sandris Murins is an artist, inventor, and researcher working at the intersection of scent, performance, and multisensory media. He is the inventor of the Scent Camera, founder of the Scent Art Festival, and a pioneer of the emerging field of aromagraphy.
Murins develops technologies and artistic methods for capturing, storing, and reproducing scents as cultural and sensory records. His Scent Camera functions as a scent recorder that allows odours present in the air to be captured in porous adsorbent materials, preserved, and later released through controlled desorption. This process enables scents to become part of multimedia documentation and artistic practice.
He coined and develops the concept of aromagraphy, the art, application, and practice of creating olfactory records by capturing airborne scent molecules, storing them within porous adsorbents, and releasing them to reconstruct olfactory and multisensory experiences. Through this work he explores scent as a medium for archives, memory, and artistic expression. Murins publishes essays and research on the topic in his journal ScentGrapher.
As a performance artist, Murins creates provocative and experimental works in which audiences are engaged not only through sight and sound but also through smell and other senses. His performances expand the traditional boundaries of sensory perception in contemporary art.
Before focusing on scent-based art and research, Murins was active as an expanded music influencer, conducting interviews with more than one hundred composers worldwide. His conversations have been published in the journal 25 Composer, featured in books and PhD research, and released on his YouTube channel. He has also collaborated with the Berlin-based contemporary music magazine Positionen.
Murins is the director of the Scent Art Festival, an international platform dedicated to the integration of scent into contemporary art, performance, and research.
Sandris at prehistoricsoul LAB
During his time at LAB, Murins focused on developing the theoretical foundations of aromagraphy. He worked on an article outlining the conceptual and methodological basis of this emerging field while also exploring scents that local residents suggested as culturally meaningful. By informally testing and observing these scents in their natural environments, Murins examined their potential relevance for future aromagraphic work and reflected on how culturally significant smells might later be captured and integrated into multisensory artistic practices.
Aromagraphy of Cultural Rituals
We are pleased to share a recent article by Sandris Murins developed during his time at prehistoricsoul LAB. The text introduces aromagraphy as an emerging field of artistic and cultural research, exploring how scent can function as a medium for documenting rituals, preserving intangible heritage, and transmitting sensory experience across time and place.