Atmospheres, inside and out

Abstract

Atmospheres: Aesthetics of Emotional Spaces, Tonino Griffero. Farnham: Ashgate (2014). 174 pages. Spatial Justice: Body, Lawscape, Atmosphere (Space, Materiality and the Normative), Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos. London: Routledge (2014). 277 pages. Elements of Architecture Assembling archaeology, atmosphere and the performance of building spaces, Mikkel Bille, Tim Flohr Sorensen (Eds.) London: Routledge (2016). 444 pages. The theme of atmospheres within philosophy, aesthetics, and critical theory has developed steadily over the last two decades. Inspired part by the philosophies of Gernot Bohme and Hermann Schmitz, the area of research has become a focal point for studies on the intersection between materiality and affectivity, embodiment and culture, and perception and sense. We are now at a point this atmospheric turn where networks devoted to the topic are appearing alongside a prolific emergence of publications concerned with the manifold dimensions of atmospheres. Yet despite--or because--of its prevalence, the idea of atmosphere remains decidedly elusive. An atmosphere, as philosopher Tonino Griffero, tells us his systematic study of the concept, is both everywhere and nowhere. Moreover, an atmosphere has a peculiar quality of being that which is often overpoweringly in the air (to use a phrase that will return time and again what Griffero calls atmospherology) whilst at the same time resisting rigid analysis. Prima facie, a strong part of the appeal of the concept of atmosphere is its very fuzziness. Atmosphere is a liminal concept; it belongs neither to the subject nor the object, it is neither fully present nor entirely absent, rather it sifts between these divisions, undercutting any attempt at fixing polarities place. This much we already know from everyday discourse. An atmosphere can refer to anything ranging from a room to a political climate, from a person's presence to the feel of a city. In aesthetic and affective terms, our language extends from the mood of a film to the affective resonance of a monumental event. Furthermore, atmosphere has a peculiarly excessive quality to it; a word, it cannot be constrained, at least not easily. To speak of the atmosphere of a room is to speak of a dialogue that takes place between the inhabitant of the room and the spatiality itself, while at the same time registering how an atmosphere exceeds that liaison between subject and object. Gernot Bohme offers a compelling summary: [A]tmospheres are neither something objective, that is, qualities possessed by things, and yet they are something thinglike, belonging to the thing that things articulate their presence through qualities--conceived as ecstasies. Nor are atmospheres something subjective, for example determinations of a psychic state. And yet they are subjectlike, belong to subjects that they are sense bodily presence by human beings and this sensing is at the same time a bodily state of being of subjects space (Bohme, 1993: 122). These three volumes under review, each important their own right, offer a series of illuminating perspectives on the paradoxical aspects of atmosphere and its broader conceptual landscape. Together, each text assumes a distinct perspective on atmosphere, with a joint sense of divergence and convergence between them. Griffero's book is emblematically phenomenological approach; his aim is to undertake nothing less than a thematic and ontological study of atmosphere, outlining its salient and invariant structures. In sharp contrast, Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos's book is mindful of phenomenology's contribution to the topic of atmosphere, but ultimately he is opposed to such a stance. Indeed, his project differs radically from Griffero's seeking to burst the bubble of atmospheres, accenting its seductive propensity to draw us inwards. Bille and Sorensen's collection adopts a different perspective altogether. …