SLS GOES PARLIAMENT
Day of Parliamentary Research 2026 – Austrian Parliament
MUELLER-DIVJAK were invited to the Austrian Parliament to present their interactive exhibition Democracy of the Senses at the Day of Parliamentary Research 2026. This year’s international conference, organized by the Parliamentary Administration, placed the role of thinking, feeling and emotions in democracy at its centre. The exhibition was introduced and contextually framed by curator Christina Hainzl (University of Krems).
Bringing the sensing-based approach of SENSING LIVING SYSTEMS into the heart of a political institution, MUELLER-DIVJAK invited participants in the parliament to experience six conceptual scents of the AUSTRIAN DEMOCRACY LAB_FRAGRANCE EDITION. These are not simply pleasant fragrances: through their names and compositions, they provoke and spark conversation about how we live together.
Developed especially for the Austrian Democracy Lab, the six scents – Toxic Masculinity (Gender Liquid), Humanista (Ultra Light), Acqua Coloniale (Intensa), Solastalgia (For Her/Him/Them), Moral Grandstanding (Privé) and Woke Water (Organic & Fairtrade) – mirror discursive currents and raise questions. They open an expanded access to debates on democracy and to imaginations of the world we share – not only through language, but through the sense of smell. They stimulate conscious perception and immediate emotional responses – spontaneous curiosity, laughter, joy, delight, enthusiasm, agreement, astonishment, or also aversion – and invite people to share memories, stories, and common experiences.
The six scents act as olfactory mediators, building bridges between different sensory perceptions and cognitive systems and encouraging democratic conversation and the exchange of knowledge – from nose to nose, as it were. They allow us to imagine, describe, negotiate and, ideally, co-create shared lifeworlds without exclusion or devaluation – opening discussions that move beyond preconceived opinions.
Their engagement with the democracy of the senses also appears in print: in the volume Perspektiven des Zusammenlebens – Zur Demokratie (ed. Christina Hainzl), MUELLER-DIVJAK are represented with the chapter “What’s That Smell? – Zur Demokratie der Nasen.”
June 2026 – Austrian Parliament, Vienna
