Singing, moving and laughing together: engaging the senses for a cosmopolitan atmosphere

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper introduces the concept of ‘cosmopolitan atmosphere’ as the medium that translates individual acts of ethnic solidarity into more sustained structures such as a cosmopolitan canopy. Using ethnographic data from an international choir in South Korea, the paper demonstrates how the organisation creates a cosmopolitan atmosphere by removing barriers to entry and filling up the rehearsal space with a positive affect. The findings reveal that this process relies on effective engagement with people’s sensory experiences, either by directly stimulating their senses or by verbally evoking cosmopolitan sensory images, defined as reproducible sensory experiences that arouse similar affects across ethnicities and nationalities. On the receiving end, other participants assess this constructed cosmopolitan atmosphere in comparison to their experience of the wider society. In a society that is less favourable to cosmopolitanism, this contextual nature allows participants to envision as cosmopolitan some unexpected elements, such as jokes based on national stereotypes and references to American popular culture.