Atmospheres and the Experiential World : Theory and Methods

Atmosphere has become a central concept for researchers and practitioners across the social sciences, arts and design, seeking to understand our experience of the world. This book advances theory and practice in this field through an exploration of the methodologies through which atmospheres are researched, understood and constituted. It argues that to understand the experience and meaning of atmosphere in everyday worlds, in-depth insights derived from those very worlds are needed.

We live in atmospheres, we talk about them and we move through them. They offer us an important route into comprehending several aspects of human life and experience, what is important to people, the environments life is played out in, and the processes of change and possible futures. Atmospheres are an ephemeral yet inescapable element of our everyday experiential and conceptual environments. They are continually beyond our grasp as they undergo constant transformation.

By interrogating atmospheres, this book arrives at new ways of thinking about the relationships between people, space, time and events. Atmospheres and the Experiential World explores the ways we engage with these affective modes, and the possibilities they offer for researchers, designers and policy-makers to make and intervene in the world.

Chapters propose an approach to atmospheres that is not fixed to certain forms or boundaries. Instead, this book argues that atmospheres should be conceptualised as dynamic and changing configurations that allow analytical insight into a range of topics when we think in, about and through them. This book offers scholars, designers and creative practitioners, professionals and students a research-based way of understanding and intervening in atmospheres.