Sensory Walk & Sniff & Record

Sunday 30 November 2025, 11am–1pm
Meet outside GULP, 58 Spencer Street, Jewellery Quarter
Free · Booking essential

Join us for another event in Sensing the JQ, a new research-led project by artist Kaye Winwood exploring the unique character of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter through the senses.

In this participatory workshop, you’ll experience the JQ in an entirely new way - not just through sight and sound, but by tuning into its textures, surfaces, scent traces, and sensory histories. Together we will walk, sniff, pause, record, take impressions, and make texture-inspired prints. Along the way, we’ll consider how smell and tactility shape our emotional and physical connection to place; and how this informs the aesthetics and ambience of the JQ.

The walk will be co-led by Dr Jieling Xiao (Birmingham City University), a leading expert on smellscapes and sensory environments. Her work explores how scent, sound, and spatial design influence wellbeing and human experience. She has developed sensory trails including Sensing Beyond the Roundhouse and Sensing Around the Anglesey Column.

Insights gathered from this and other sensory workshops will contribute to a bespoke sensory dining experience at GULP in 2026.

Draft Timetable

11.00 Meet outside GULP (58 Spencer Street)
11.00–12.00 Sensory Walk & Sniff & Print around the Jewellery Quarter
12.00–1.00 Group discussion with light refreshments at GULP (*)

PLEASE NOTE: In the event of bad weather, this activity may need to be cancelled. Please leave your mobile when booking.

Access Notes

We will do our best to make the route as accessible as possible. Please let us know in advance if you have any access requirements.
Refreshments take place at GULP (*), located on the first floor and only accessible via staircase.

Sensing the JQ is supported by a JQ Common Room Microgrant and BCC Enterprise Zone.