14 DAY TRIAL // Thanks to brainiacs with the Avans University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, those of us with a taste for the macabre can now experience first-hand what several famous deaths smelled and sounded like.
Thus, these scientists put together an installation that uses scents and sounds to recreate the final moments of US President John F. Kennedy, Princess Diana, Whitney Houston, and Libyan Prime Minister Muammar Gaddafi.
The installation made it public debut at the Tech Open Air 2014 conference in Berlin, Germany, earlier this year, in July. It is set to tour Europe in the months to come and the scientists who built it expect that plenty of people will want to give it a try.
Using smells and sounds to recreate famous deaths
As detailed by International Business Times, the rather bizarre installation designed and built by Avans University researcher Frederik Duerinck and his colleagues comprises 4 metal boxes, one for each of the famous deaths the scientists decided to recreate.
The boxes are big enough for a guy or a gal to lie down inside them, which is precisely what folks looking to experience John F. Kennedy's, Princess Diana's, Whitney Houston's, and Muammar Gaddafi's final moments are expected to do.
While inside these boxes, those bold enough to learn through personal experience what the deaths of these famous people were like are to be exposed to the sounds and smells that accompanied the demise of John F. Kennedy, Princess Diana, Whitney Houston, and Muammar Gaddafi.
In the case of US President John F. Kennedy, this means smelling Jackie Kennedy's perfume together with the not-so-pleasant scent of blood and gunpowder. Needless to say, such an experience is not for the faint of heart, the brainiacs behind this project stress.
“‘Famous Deaths’ is a series of four portraits of celebrities in their final moments. This installation will reconstruct these moments as closely as possible, using only sound and scents. This will create a short but intimate experience,” they explain in a statement.
Why use scents and sounds to recreate deaths?
The Avans University of Applied Sciences brainiacs say that, whether we like to admit it or not, the fact of the matter is that the final moments of famous people fascinate us. Hence the popularity of reports and videos documenting such incidents.
They go on to explain that, when creating their installation, they looked to engage people's sense of smell and hearing to give them a chance to relate to and better understand the deaths of John F. Kennedy, Princess Diana, Whitney Houston, and Muammar Gaddafi.
To make sure that this experience would be as accurate as possible, the researchers did not settle for basing their work on publicly available information alone. On the contrary, they also took the time to browse through police and autopsy reports.
They argue that, since our sense of smell is more connected to our emotions and memories than out sense of sight is, their installation is bound to forever transform folks' understanding of the demise of the famous people included in this project.
