The Aesthetics of Atmospheres

332 Pages·2016·1.72 MB·English

by  Gernot Böhme

The Aesthetics of Atmospheres
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
every-thing, 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.
Gernot Böhme was Professor of Philosophy at TU Darmstadt, Germany
between 1977 and 2002 and has been director of the Institute for Practical
Philosophy in Darmstadt since 2005. His research interests include the
philosophy of science, theory of time, aesthetics, ethics, and philosophical
anthropology.
Jean-Paul Thibaud, sociologist, is CNRS Senior Researcher at CRESSON/
UMR Ambiances Architectures Urbanités. His field of research covers the
theory of urban ambiances, ordinary perception, and sensory ethnography of
public places. In 2008 he founded the International Ambiances Network.
Ambiances, Atmospheres and Sensory Experiences of Space
Series Editors:
Rainer Kazig, CNRS Research Laboratory Ambiances – Architectures
–
Urbanités, Grenoble, France
Damien Masson, Université de Cergy-Pontoise, France
Paul Simpson, Plymouth University, UK
Research on ambiances and atmospheres has grown significantly in recent years
in a range of disciplines, including Francophone architecture and urban studies,
German research related to philosophy and aesthetics, and a growing range of
Anglophone research on affective atmospheres within human geography and
sociology.
This series offers a forum for research that engages with questions around
ambiances and atmospheres in exploring their significances in understanding
social life. Each book in the series advances some combination of theoretical
understandings, practical knowledges and methodological approaches. More
specifically, a range of key questions which contributions to the series seek to
address includes:
• In what ways do ambiances and atmospheres play a part in the unfolding of
social life in a variety of settings?
• What kinds of ethical, aesthetic, and political possibilities might be opened
up and cultivated through a focus on atmospheres/ambiances?
• How do actors such as planners, architects, managers, commercial interests
and public authorities actively engage with ambiances and atmospheres or
seek to shape them? How might these ambiances and atmospheres be
reshaped towards critical ends?
• What original forms of representations can be found today to (re)present the
sensory, the atmospheric, the experiential? What sort of writing, modes of
expression, or vocabulary is required? What research methodologies and
practices might we employ in engaging with ambiances and atmospheres?
The Aesthetics of Atmospheres
Gernot Böhme
Edited by
Jean-Paul Thibaud
First published 2017
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Gernot Böhme
The right of Gernot Böhme to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used
only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for their permission to reprint material in this book.
The publishers would be grateful to hear from any copyright holder who is not here acknowledged and will
undertake to rectify any errors or omissions in future editions of this book.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in
Publication Data
Names: Böhme, Gernot, author. | Thibaud, Jean-Paul, editor.
Title: The aesthetics of atmospheres / Gernot Böhme ; edited by Jean-Paul Thibaud.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2016. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016010190 | ISBN 9781138688506 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315538181 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Aesthetics. | Nature (Aesthetics) | Architecture–Aesthetics. | Light. | Sound (Philosophy)
Classification: LCC BH39 .B6172513 2016 | DDC 111/.85–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016010190
ISBN: 978-1-13868850-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-31553818-1 (ebk)
Contents
List of figures
Acknowledgements from the International Ambiances Network
Foreword
Introduction
PART I
Theory: aesthetics and aesthetical economy
1 Atmosphere as a fundamental concept of a new aesthetics
2 Atmosphere as an aesthetic concept
3 The art of the stage set as a paradigm for an aesthetics of atmospheres
4 Kant’s aesthetics: a new perspective
5 On beauty
6 On synesthesia
7 Contribution to the critique of the aesthetic economy
PART II
Aesthetics of nature and art
8 Aesthetic knowledge of nature
9 Nature in the age of its technical reproducibility
10 Body, nature, and art
11 Nature as a subject
PART III
Architecture
12 The atmosphere of a city
13 Atmosphere as the subject matter of architecture
14 Staged materiality
15 Architecture: a visual art?: On the relationship between modern architecture
and photography
16 Metaphors in architecture – a metaphor?
PART IV
Light and sound
17 Acoustic atmospheres
18 Music and architecture
19 The great concert of the world
20 Seeing light
21 The phenomenology of light
Bibliography
Index
Figures
13.1 Jonathan Borofsky, Man Walking to the Sky, in front of the Fridericianum
during documenta 9, Kassel, 1992. Photo Gernot Böhme
Acknowledgements from the International Ambiances
Network
The International Ambiances Network (http://www.ambiances.net) aims at
structuring and developing the research field of architectural and urban
ambiances. It wishes to promote the sensory domain in the questioning and
design of lived space. This sensitive approach of the built environment involves
all the senses (sound, light, odors, touch, heat, etc.).
The International Ambiances Network favors multisensoriality and
pluridisciplinarity (human and social sciences; architecture and urban planning;
engineering and applied physics). It is open to a wide variety of profiles and
includes research activities as well as design, teaching or artistic ones.
The International Ambiances Network wishes to thank Gernot Böhme for his
trust in providing us with the opportunity to publish his book. Such an
undertaking is of particular significance, given the centrality of the theory of
Gernot Böhme within the thematic of sensory atmospheres. By contributing to
this publication, the International Ambiances Network continues its scientific
mission and work enhancement in this area. It reaffirms the importance of the
dissemination and discussion of the essential texts of this field of thought and
action, it calls for an open search for the diversity of languages, disciplines, and
approaches, and it implements the constitution of internationally shared
knowledge in the field.