Category: Atmospheric Spaces

Atmospheric Spaces

Directed by Tonino Griffero

Editorial Board:

Jean-François Augoyard (CNRS – Grenoble), Arnold Berleant (Emeritus – Long Island University), Mikkel Bille (Roskilde Universitet), Gernot Böhme (Emeritus – Universitaet Darmstadt), Christian Borch (Copenhagen Business School), Gabor Csepregi (Université de Saint-Boniface – Winnipeg), Christoph Demmerling (Universität Jena), Thomas Fuchs (Universitätsklinikum – Heidelberg), Michael Großheim (Universität Rostock), Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (Stanford University), Jürgen Hasse (Goethe Universität – Frankfurt), Timothy Ingold (University of Aberdeen), Rainer Kazig (LMU – München), David Le Breton (Université de Strasbourg), Juhani Pallasmaa (Helsinki University, Alvar Aalto Academy), Alberto Pérez-Gómez (McGill University – Montreal, Quebec), Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos (University of Westminster – London), Hermann Schmitz (Emeritus – Universität Kiel), David Seamon (Kansas State University), Giovanni Stanghellini (Università “G. D’Annunzio” – Chieti; Universidad “Diego Portales” – Santiago), Jean-Paul Thibaud (CNRS – Grenoble).

What is an “Atmosphere”? According to an aesthetic, phenomenological and ontological view, such a notion can be understood as a sensorial and affective quality widespread in space. It is the particular tone that determines the way one experiences her surroundings. Air, ambiance, aura, climate, environment, genius loci, milieu, mood, numinous, lived space, Stimmung, but also Umwelt, ki, aida, Zwischen, in-between – all these words are names hiding, in fact, the founding idea of atmospheres: a vague ens or power, without visible and discrete boundaries, which we find around us and, resonating in our lived body, even involves us. Studying atmospheres means, thus, a parte subjecti, to analyze (above all) the range of unintentional or involuntary experiences and, in particular, those experiences which emotionally “tonalize” our everyday life. A parte objecti, it means however to learn how atmospheres are intentionally (e.g. artistically, politically, socially, etc.) produced and how we can critically evaluate them, thus avoiding being easily manipulated by such feelings. Atmospheric Spaces is a new book series whose aim is to become a point of reference for a community that works together on this philosophical and transdisciplinary subject and for all those whose research, more broadly, is involved in the so-called “affective turn” of the Social Sciences and Humanities.

Website: https://atmosphericspaces.wordpress.com/