27. Mai 2026, 17.00 Uhr Kunstuni Linz, Hauptplatz 8, 4020 Linz (Lecture Hall F - H8.05.03)
The Chair of History of Knowledge and the ERC project OLFAC invite you to a lecture from William Tullett (Early Modern History, University of York).
William Tullett (Early Modern History, University of York)
This paper uses a range of sources, primarily newspapers and government documents, to trace the history of stink bombs as a tool of political action across the west during the 1920s and 1930s. Having contextualised the emergence of the stink bomb within the longer history of weaponised smells, the paper then traces which political actors deployed stink bombs, how they used them, and when governments attempted to ban or otherwise mitigate their use. It ends by opening up a broader question about the fate of smell as a tool of activism and/or political repression and, in the context of the western media's ongoing obsession with cancel culture and de-platforming, asks what counts as ”violence” and ”freedom” when it comes to smell’s use in public space.
Will Tullett is a Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of York.
His research focuses on the history of smell across the world form the medieval period to the present. He has published two books: 2019’s Smell in Eighteenth-
Century England with Oxford University Press and 2023’s Smell and the Past with Bloomsbury Academic. Autumn this year will see the publication of his major new history of smell with Yale University Press. He was part of the EU Horizon 2020 funded Odeuropa project and is currently running a British Academy funded
project on smell and industrial heritage.
March 11, 2026
Introduction by OLFAC - Silke Felber, Freda Fiala and Julia Ostwald
March 25, 2026
320 GB in a backpack - the physical aspect of digital art about glaciers
Tina Frank (Visual Communication, University of Arts Linz) &
Alexis Dworsky (Media Design, University of Arts Linz)
April 15, 2026
Dis_sensual - A crip choreographer's re-distribution of the sensible
Michael Turinsky (Artist, Vienna)
April 22, 2026
Performing Snakes in Modernity and Today
Nicole Haitzinger (Dance Studies, University of Salzburg) &
Christina Gillinger (Tanzquartier Vienna TQW)
April 29, 2026
Tasting skin. On chilis and chills
Karin Harrasser (Cultural Studies, University of Arts Linz and Director of
ifk - International Research Center for Cultural Studies)
May 6, 2026
A sense of the insoluble
bankleer - Karin Kasböck & Christoph Maria Leitner
May 13, 2026
Mimi o Sumasu - the Very Act of Listening
Miya Yoshida (Artistic Research, University of Applied Arts Vienna)
May 20, 2026
Lingering with Bass (2024, Steve McQueen)
Ulrike Hanstein (VALIE EXPORT Center, University of Arts Linz)
May 27, 2026
Olfactory Violence and the Freedom to Speak: Stink Bombs in Interwar Europe
William Tullett (Early Modern History, University of York)
June 3, 2026
Sensing the Atmospheres of Painters' Studios in Nineteenth-Century France
Erika Wicky (Olfactions, Université Grenoble Alpes)
June 10, 2026
Hee-Hawing Democracy: Somatic Articulations Beyond the Logos
Bettina Wuttig (University of Marburg)
June 17, 2026
Greetings from the Swamp
Maria Nalbantova (Artist, Sofia)
June 24, 2026
A loving ear - towards a poetic ecology of feeling
Brandon LaBelle (Independent Researcher, Berlin)
There will be a live stream. The link will be communicated to registered participants.
If you would like to participate online, please register via the following address: office.olfac@kunstuni-linz.at