Capturing the Semantics of Smell: The Odeuropa Data Model for Olfactory Heritage Information

Smells are a key sensory experience. They are part of a multi-billion euro industry and gaining traction in different research fields such as museology, art, history, and digital humanities. Until now, a semantic model for describing smells and their associated experiences was lacking. In this paper, we present the Odeuropa data model for olfactory heritage information. The model has been developed in collaboration with olfactory and art historians. Our model can express the various stages in a smell’s lifetime – creation, being experienced, deodorisation – and their relation to locations, times and the agents that interact with them.