SmellScape KCK/KCMO (2007-2012) is the latest project by Berlin-based artist and smell researcher Sissel Tolaas. SmellScape is a game which invites the public to engage as players investigating the smells of Kansas City. The game begins with a reception on Friday, September 7th, from 6 to 9 pm, and continues through October 31st, 2012.

In 2007, Grand Arts exhibited Tolaas' project the FEAR of Smell: the Smell of FEAR, featuring nine "invisible portraits" of men whose sweat she simulated. For her 2012 return, the Norwegian-born artist has mapped, collected and reproduced the smells of Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan. Tolaas has undertaken similar smell-mapping projects in Berlin, Mexico City, Cape Town and elsewhere, but here the installation takes its ultimate form as a game: a smell-based urban treasure hunt. Participants are challenged to explore downtown neighborhoods on foot and nose-first, alert to the power of smell, in a quest to locate and collect scratch-and-sniff postcards infused with location-specific scents.

SmellScape players begin at Grand Arts or one of six "Main Posts" - Kansas City Municipal Court, City Market, Kaw Point Park, Bethany Park, KCKPL’s Main Library, or the Kansas City Museum - where a large neighborhood map will highlight between one and five "Outposts" within walking distance. Players can collect one smell card at each Outpost, noting specific smells they detect, and proceed to subsequent Outposts for more cards. For extra points, players can snap photos along their journeys and add them to the game.

Points are scored through number of cards collected, smells noted, and photos contributed—the more Main Posts and Outposts a player visits, the more points he or she scores. iPhone users can download the SmellScape App (on or after September 7th) to "check in" at Outposts and update scores automatically. App users can also access leader boards, upload photos, and tag discoveries on Facebook. Players who are not using an iPhone can take their cards, notes and photos directly to Grand Arts, the game's hub and home base, to have their scores tallied. All players who collect at least two different smell cards can claim a limited-edition, complete box set of SmellScape postcards at Grand Arts before October 31st, 2012.

Dedicated players who collect more than ten cards enter the Silver Sniffer Circle and have a chance to win a real Golden Nose. Select Outpost locations will also randomly distribute prizes from SmellScape partner businesses.

At Grand Arts, players can experiment with smell-mixing in a micro-laboratory and view their fellow game players’ progress on a live map. Grand Arts will also convene a series of public programs in conjunction with the project on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in October.

With a background in science and linguistics, Tolaas has spent decades exploring how smell - one of our most powerful and least understood senses - can help us improve tolerance within our cultures and communities. She conducts her social experiments with a sense of discovery and play. "Nothing stinks," insists Tolaas, "but thinking makes it so!"