It seems we are increasingly worried about what our future will look like, but at the same time, I’ve struggled to find watchable videos that critique and explain the future we are designing. Designtist is a channel that makes videos about the science in design. The goal is to ask the question of, “Where are we designing to?”.

It’s in this context that I made a conversation-starter style video about the ethics of olfactory technologies for the Osmocosm conference.

I feel like we have a fairly crude, or visceral relationship with scent. But these new technologies offer the possibility of transforming something as intimate as our scent into a language that our devices could understand and monetise.To get this idea in front of some of the people it could actually impact, Designtist makes content for the massively popular format of 60 second videos on Instagram Reels, TikTok, and Youtube Shorts (we also do long form videos). This format brings with it some constraints (it doesn’t allow you to go into much depth), however, successfully engaging with a large audience requires showing them ideas in a way that fits into their lives.

Please feel free to contact @designtist.video if you’re working on similar emerging technologies to engage with the people it could impact.