Emotion: The Connective Tissue of Atmospheres and Haunts

Abstract

Just as a small band of scholars has endeavored to explore the phenomenon of “atmosphere”– i.e., the characteristic feel of a particular situation, circumstance, artifactor era – another group of researchers has shed light on the defining characteristicsof “haunts,” those places where the atmosphere may, to some people, seem strange,spooky or off-putting. The fields of atmosphere studies, hauntology, and spectralityattest to these investigations. However, scholars of atmosphere rarely refer to haunts,while scholars of hauntology and spectrality insufficiently emphasize the affective coreof atmospheres. This paper argues that affect – which nearly all studies acknowledge asthe key element of atmosphere – is equally central to the phenomenon of haunts. Sinceaffect is a property of living creatures, the paper proposes that haunted atmospheresattest to the quality or intensity of feelings expressed by individuals, even if they areno longer in that location or no longer living. Just as atmospheres can be sensed butnot grasped, just as they are ineffable yet discernable, and just as they are fleetingyet can also linger, they resemble feelings, moods and ghosts. The term “presence,”which recurs throughout atmosphere studies, hauntology, and spectrality, is closelyconsidered for its connection with concepts of time, immediacy, and memory. Threeexperiences of the author are presented as touchstones for evaluating the possibilitiesdiscussed. The paper concludes by discussing our species’ “ocular-centrism,” i.e., itstendency to conclude that what can be seen and definitively measured is real whereaswhat is invisible and shifting is less real or not at all.