The Aesthetics of Atmospheres (Ambiances, Atmospheres and Sensory Experiences of Spaces)

by Gernot Böhme (Author), Jean-Paul Thibaud (Editor)

Interest in sensory atmospheres and architectural and urban ambiances has been growing for over 30 years. A key figure in this field is acclaimed German philosopher Gernot Böhme whose influential conception of what atmospheres are and how they function has been only partially available to the English-speaking public. This translation of key essays along with an original introduction charts the development of Gernot Böhme’s philosophy of atmospheres and how it can be applied in various contexts such as scenography, commodity aesthetics, advertising, architecture, design, and art.

The phenomenological analysis of atmospheres has proved very fruitful and its most important, and successful, application has been within aesthetics. The material background of this success may be seen in the ubiquitous aestheticization of our lifeworld, or from another perspective, of the staging of everything, every event and performance. The theory of atmospheres becoming an aesthetic theory thus reveals the theatrical, not to say manipulative, character of politics, commerce, of the event-society. But, taken as a positive theory of certain phenomena, it offers new perspectives on architecture, design, and art. It made the spatial and the experience of space and places a central subject and hence rehabilitated the ephemeral in the arts. Taking its numerous impacts in many fields together, it initiated a new humanism: the individual as a living person and his or her perspective are taken seriously, and this fosters the ongoing democratization of culture, in particular the possibility for everybody to participate in art and its works.

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Product details Hardcover: 230 pages Publisher: Routledge (19 Sept. 2016) Language: English ISBN-10: 1138688509 ISBN-13: 978-1138688506

Atmospheres: Aesthetics of Emotional Spaces

Atmospheres [electronic resource] : Aesthetics of Emotional Spaces 

by Griffero, Tonino; Ebook Library [supplier].

Publisher: Farnham : Taylor and Francis, 2016.Description: 1 online resource (128 pages).ISBN: 9781472421739.Subject(s): Aesthetics, Modern | Emotions (Philosophy) | Space | Electronic books

Contents:

Cover Page — Dedication — Title Page — Copyright Page — Contents — Introduction: Not to Leave Vagueness (but to Stay in it in the Right Way) — 1 Atmospheric Perception — 1.1 Atmospheric Segmentation? — 1.2 Perceiving Atmospheres — 1.3 How One Feels Here and Now in the Felt-Body — 1.4 The First Impression — 1.5 Atmospheres as Situational Constraints — 1.6 Lived (Predimensional) Spaces — 1.7 ‘Affordances’ and Imagine-Motor Reactions — 2 History of the Concept of Atmosphere — 2.1 The Climatic Paradigm — 2.2 Atmosphere and Landscape

2.3 Orosensory Atmosphere (and the Case of Haptics) — 2.4 … that ‘Creates an Atmosphere — 2.5 The Numinous and the ‘Genius Loci’ — 2.6 ‘Stimmung’, ‘Ambiance’, Aura — 2.7 From ‘Affordances’ to Emotional Design — 2.8 And Art? From the Beautiful to the Atmospheric — 2.9 Urban Seductions — 2.10 The Magic of Dwelling — 2.11 Ecstasy of Materials — 3 Atmospherology — 3.1 History of a ‘Sin’: Introjection and Projection — 3.2 Atmospheres: Not Metaphors but Quasi-things — 3.3 Sinaesthesias — 3.4 ‘All Out’: Atmospheric Ontology — 3.5 Principles of a Phenomenology of Atmospheres — Conclusion

Bibliography — Index

 

Summary: Originally published in Italian in 2010, this book is the first to address the theory of atmospheres in a thorough and systematic way. It examines the role of atmospheres in daily life, and defines their main characteristics. Outlining the typical phenomenological situations in which we experience atmospheres, it assesses their impact on contemporary aesthetics. It puts forward a philosophical approach which systematises a constellation of affects and climates, finds patterns in the emotional tones of different spaces (affordances) and assesses their impact on the felt body. It also critically discusses the spatial turn invoked by several of the social sciences, and argues that there is a need for a non-psychologistic rethinking of the philosophy of emotions. It provides a history of the term ‘atmosphere’ and of the concepts anticipating its meaning (genius loci, aura, Stimmung, numinous, emotional design and ambiance), and examines the main ontological characteristics of atmospheres and their principal phenomenological characteristics. It concludes by showing how atmospheres affect our emotions, our bodies’ reactions, our state of mind and, as a result, our behaviour and judgments. Griffero assesses how atmospheres are more effective than we have been rationally willing to admit, and to what extent traditional aesthetics, unilaterally oriented towards art, has underestimated this truth.

Architectural Atmospheres : On the Experience and Politics of Architecture

Architectural Atmospheres [electronic resource] : On the Experience and Politics of Architecture 

by Borch, Christian; Böhme, Gernot; Eliasson, Olafur; Pallasmaa, Juhani; Borch, Christian; Ebook Library [supplier].

Publisher: Basel/Berlin/Boston : Birkhäuser, 2014.Description: 1 online resource (112 pages).ISBN: 9783038211785.

Contents:

Introduction: Why Atmospheres? — Space, Place, and Atmosphere: Peripheral Perception in Existential Experience — Urban Atmospheres: Charting New Directions for Architecture and Urban Planning — The Politics of Atmospheres: Architecture, Power, and the Senses — Atmospheres, Art, Architecture — Contributors — Index — Photo Credits

Summary: There is a growing awareness of the atmospheric dimensions of architecture in contemporary architectural practice as well as in social and architectural theory. Architectural Atmospheres provides a pointed, programmatic discussion of this atmospheric turn. The book is essential reading for architects, planners, and social theorists who take an interest in how we experience architecture and in how to improve architectural and urban design.

Atmospheres papers and references

understanding-atmospheres-culture-materiality-and-the-texture-of-the-in-between presentation-of-hermann-schmitz-paper-atmospheric-spaces the-aesthetics-of-atmospheres-ambiances-atmospheres-and-sensory-experiences-of-spaces-amazon-co-uk-gernot-bohme-jean-paul-thibaud-9781138688506-books atmosphere-as-the-fundamental-concept-of-a-new-aesthetics architecture-of-atmosphere-wigley encountering-atmospheres building-atmosphere space-place-and-atmosphere-emotion-and-peripheral-perception-in-architectural-experience