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 Bhme 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 Bhmes 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 Bhme 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 Urbanits. 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

Urbanits, Grenoble, France

Damien Masson, Universit 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 Bhme

Edited by

Jean-Paul Thibaud

First published 2017

by Routledge

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2017 Gernot Bhme

The right of Gernot Bhme 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: Bhme, Gernot, author. | Thibaud, Jean-Paul, editor.

Title: The aesthetics of atmospheres / Gernot Bhme ; 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) | ArchitectureAesthetics. | Light. | Sound (Philosophy)

Classification: LCC BH39 .B6172513 2016 | DDC 111/.85dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016010190

ISBN: 978-1-138-68850-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-53818-1 (ebk)

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 Bhme 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 Bhme 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.