Sharpening anticipatory design senses for sustainable “scentory” futures

This article investigates speculative design and the olfactory concerning potential future life forms and styles for more long term sustainable and survivable futures. Referring to Anticipatory Design, the article links anticipatory speculative inquiry literature from design, culture and posthumanism. Included is mention of cultural historical and contemporary material on the olfactory and sensory related design. The article reaches beyond current consumerist market practices in cosmetics and perfume. It poses and projects alternative relations between the environment and bio-materials, the olfactory, embodiment, the sensory, and the perceptual. These perspectives are related to leading olfactory project and emerging trends and are embedded in a speculative olfactory project called XIANGVEI. Through a suite of speculative artifacts future life forms and life styles are seen having potential to contribute to wider systemic and collective systems of shaping futures knowledge by ‘scentory’ design. These life forms and styles are discussed in terms of in an eco-cultural-techno anticipatory design futures frame.