The Aesthetics of Atmospheres

Interest in sensory atmospheres and architectural and urban ambiances has been growing for over thirty 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 philosophy of atmospheres and how it can be applied in various contexts such as scenography, commodity aesthetics, advertising, architecture and design, and art.

Autorentext

Gernot Böhme (Author) 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 (Editor), 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.

Inhalt

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 synaesthesiae

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