‘You Cannot Scroll Past a Smell’: Anicka Yi’s Radical Vision for the Future of Sensory Art

In her latest installation, 'Message from the Mud,' artist Anicka Yi challenges the visual-centric dominance of digital culture, advocating for a return to the visceral power of scent. By introducing 'microbial time'—a concept that prioritizes the slow, adaptive intelligence of biological systems over the rapid, sterile pace of digital AI—Yi highlights our inextricable connection to the invisible world. The article explores how Yi uses the olfactory sense to disrupt the passivity of the modern, screen-based experience. Her work serves as a political critique of the sanitized, curated environments we inhabit, arguing that scent acts as an inescapable, primal link to our environment. Through an analysis of the 'politics of the senses,' this piece examines how Yi’s synthesis of biotechnology and art provides a vital alternative to purely synthetic futures, urging a deeper, multisensory awareness of the biological networks that sustain human life and define our physical reality.