The “Smell of Data,” a new project by Dutch designer Leanne Wijnsma and filmmaker Froukje Tan, recently baffled the international design community both thanks to its interesting aesthetics and surprising function. The flacon-like ball was created as an olfactory data-leakage alert for smart phones, tablets, and computers, indicating to users whenever their connections aren’t safe.Wijnsma and Tan launched their device at the London Science Museum in early fall and are currently presenting it at the Dutch Design Week 2016 in Eindhoven. BLOUIN ARTINFO caught up with Leanne Wijnsma to talk about the device, the power of smell, and data detox.Click here to find out more about “The Smell of Data”.The “Smell of Data“, a device you developed in collaboration with Froukje Tan, makes data leaks smellable. How did you come up with this idea?It started a while ago when I thought about Big Data and data leakage. We hear a lot about it and are aware of our privacy and the need to protect it. In my environment, many people care about this a lot, but what surprised me is that people aren’t really taking action. We kind of want to, but we don’t really take the next step of actually installing some plug-ins, not using specific websites that we know leak our data. I was trying to find a solution for that and I thought smell could be the answer, because it’s very instinctive and can trigger action.In what way?In the past we used our noses for hunting and gathering, which has now literally moved to the Internet. However, there are no smells anymore to warn us in case of danger. That is why the Internet needs a smell.I’m an experienced designer and I truly believe that we learn through experience. We read a lot about data, we know what it is, but we don’t feel it, it is very intangible. In my designs I really aim to make things perceivable, so we actually know what we are dealing with.The device diffuses a metallic scent. What was your inspiration?My inspiration came from gas. Gas is also something we don’t smell or see, but it can be very dangerous when it leaks, there used to be many accidents due to this, until in 1937 the US government decided to add a smell to gas. This soon was also practiced in Europe. With the result that there were much less accidents.Can you tell us a little about how the device works?First we had to figure out which data leaks can be recognized. When you use your phone or computer on the Internet, you’re leaking personal bits of information all the time. The “Smell of Data” isn’t able to recognize all the data leaks at the moment— the only way to stop all leaks right now would be to through your phone in the pool. That we don’t want. The Smell of Data highlights a few of the leaks that are very easy to block, for example when you connect to an unprotected wi-fi network in a public space. It’s a simple task for hackers to log into your phone and see exactly which websites you are visiting, and it’s very easy to see your email address, your IP address. So if you use vulnerable information, it’s easy to access it. However, this can also easily be prevented, for example by installing a VPN (Virtual private network) which makes it much more difficult for hackers to look into your personal information. So the device recognizes these leaks, alarms you, and tells you what you can do about it.For the first prototype we were looking at data leaks that were recognizable by software and that people can actually do something about. When we smell gas, we know exactly how to act: you close the tap, open a window, don’t use fire etc. You learned this instinctively from your parents while growing up. The same is what we need to reach with data-leakage. First we need to become aware of the risks, then we need to know how to close the data-tap.How does the device connect to your phone or computer?It has a little router. You pair your phone or computer or tablet with the device and then the device literally looks for holes in your Internet traffic. When it recognizes such a hole, the scent diffuser in the tool is triggered and puffs the smell of data.You launched the “Smell of Data” at the Science Museum in London recently, and most recently presented it at the Dutch Design Week. The most important part for me was telling the story about data, about making it physical. But at the Science Museum, where visitors were able to test their own data leakage on their personal phones, they immediately wanted one. People started testing it and were surprised it actually worked and immediately wanted one for example for their elderly mothers or their children even. In the end this is a design object – a tool to use.As a designer you want to tell your story, and have as many people as possible experience it. If this can actually become a user friendly product, then it’s a great way to go. Of course, I’m not the person to run a commercial enterprise and it’s also not my intention. All of the software is open source and I really hope that people start playing with it and find more data leaks that can be covered, and maybe we can find partners to further develop it.The prototype is still pretty big and only covers two or three data leaks. There are many more. If you really want to take this object with you to public spaces as well, because that’s also where you leak a lot of data, it should be smaller. So these are some of the things on our To-Do-List.Another project you’re working on right now is this tunnel between the two Cultural Capitals of 2018, Valletta and Leeuwarden.It’ll be a digital tunnel, with a similar aim: I want to try to make the digital more instinctive, so we can make better sense out of — and Internet cables are mostly buried underground. The data we are exchanging right now is all taking place below the surface of the earth. The whole world is connected through those digital tunnels. We tend to think that this data is in ‘the cloud’. But in reality it’s all happening below our feet.In both cities I will dig (and build) a physical underground space in which visitors can connect, making use of the physical as well as the digital reality. The digital connection will become sensible through sound and smell.In another recent project you let people dig actual tunnels in the ground to disconnect?Yes, as a digital turn. The physical digging — I can dig maybe four meters a day and that physical experience with no connection whatsoever is very important. I’m trying to recreate that experience in the digital realm.At the moment we live in an age where connecting is everything. Do you think there’ll be a backlash in the future, that future generations may want the exact opposite and get out of all the networks, because they feel over-connected?I’m 100 percent sure, yes. The recent development of us living these online lives is very new, we’re enjoying it because it gives us so much, but you can also see it as almost an addiction of sorts, because we just can’t stop, always want more, and everything’s available, like paradise. I think there’s different ways of dealing with this. One is to escape. That is what I’m doing with the tunnel projects, where you escape it not entirely but at least for a day. And it gives you so much more than sitting in front of a screen, because it’s physical.There’s no need to give up the digital. But it’s important to start making use of our instincts more in that digital world in order to ‘survive’. Read more