NYC Media Lab Virtual Synesthesia Showcase

Sponsored by NYCML and our design-challenge sponsor, CHANEL Fragrance & Beauty, six NYU teams will be presenting immersive olfactory experiences in digital worlds as part of this year’s NYCML’s: Virtual Synesthesia Challenge. This twelve week program encouraged participants to leverage emerging technologies including artificial intelligence to design and build products and projects that offer novel solutions to answer the question: How can one leverage synesthesia to tell a story in bold new ways?

Installations will be exhibited at NYU Tandon @ the Yard, our 14,000 sq ft production and research facility, consisting of two production studios as well as other systems for working with emerging media technology. Join us for refreshments, pizza, and awards to be presented to two participating teams.

Participating teams include:

AI Reimagined Perfume: an immersive short AI film about the history of CHANEL N°5

Aresphere: a 360 VR film focusing on smells approach to fashion + performance + accessibility.

Blum: an exploration of the impact of COVID19 on smell through a Scratch 'n Sniff experience.

City Scent: a cinematic journey capturing an iconic perfume traversing different eras through the experiences of one woman.

Sensify: an installation utilizing machine learning to create an interactive AI generative experience about memory and smell.

Scentience: an installation of ever-changing visualizations of scent as a personal and immersive exploration into the unseen world of aromas.

Special VR screenings of Forager and Tree

Forager: a mushroom is a door in the floor, open it and discover nature's greatest revelation: an endless underground network secretly feeding life to the world above. Using wind, haptics and scent you will follow the life-cycle of a mushroom.

Tree is a haptically enhanced virtual reality experience that transforms you into a rainforest tree. With your arms as branches and body as the trunk, you experience the tree's growth from a seedling into its fullest form and witness its fate firsthand.