Atmosphere and Place
Spring 2015
MW 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM (Mondays: Theory / Wednesday: Practice)
Image Credit: Diller+Scofidio, Blur Building, Exposition Pavilion, Swiss Expo, Yverdon-Les-Bains, 2002 (Interior view)
The concepts of atmosphere and place denote both concrete material-geographical domains and ephemeral spheres of meaning. One may locate a place on a map and model the behavior of the atmosphere as a dynamic Earth system but we also speak of having a sense of place and describe places in terms of their atmosphere or ambience. Through a combination of theoretical inquiry and experimental practice, this course considers how our experiences of atmosphere and place are modulated by the arts and sciences, architecture, technology, politics and cultural practices. Drawing upon readings in anthropology, philosophy and science and technology studies we will ask, how have our ways of knowing and creating place and atmosphere varied historically? And what habits of noticing and describing do we require to capture both familiar and unfamiliar ways of inhabiting homes, climates, and social spaces? With these methodological considerations in mind, we will examine how atmosphere and place are constructed, paying particular attention to the way that climate, air, clouds--the phenomena studied by atmospheric science--are imbued with meaning. We will consider how practices of weather prediction, climate control, urban planning and mass mediation inform our sense of place on an intimate and global scale. During the last month of the course we will work across media and disciplines to develop a series of phenomenological experiments to examine how atmosphere and place may be constituted performatively, by structuring our physical environments and our modes of attending, acting and interacting within built and unstructured spaces.
The seminar will be centered on close readings and discussions of selected texts, with opportunities for presenting installation or performative work. In April students will participate in a 2-week residency on Atmosphere and Place at the Synthesis Center, during which time they will work intensively on final projects and papers together with visiting artists and scholars. At the end of the semester each student will be responsible for either a theoretical paper of 16-18 pages OR a substantial technical or performative work accompanied by detailed written documentation (appropriate format to be determined in consultation with the instructors).This course is open to Graduate students in any of the AME concentrations as well as MAS PhD students. MAS PhD students will be able to use this course on their Program of Study for one of the AME required courses. This class also is open to graduate students in English and will count as a theory course. If you are an English graduate student, please make sure you have signed up for the class under the ENG prefix.
Assignments
Practicum Writeups 30%
For each practicum students are expected to write up a short (i.e., not more than a single 1.5 spaced page) in which they discuss their understanding of the theories being read and propose how they can be manifest, experienced, or studied through media.
Group Projects: Coding theory 50%
The main assignment for the class will be a shared group project that takes a detailed examination of one theoretical reading and asks the group to figure out how the theories proposed within can be observed, questioned, refined, or empirically studied through the use of digital technologies. The project should explore theories of place or atmosphere from a different school thought (i.e., groups will not be allowed to work with the same theorists), and rigorously explore how these theories can be used to refine the practices of each group member. For an example of how theory and digital tools can be melded see Roberts et al. ND on the Blackboard site.
This assigment will be divided into three parts:
Final Presentation 20%
A final presentation outlining the trajectories and the results of the group projects will be required. Well-timed, articulate presentations are one of the most important skills you can learn in the academy. The presentation can take on different forms, depending on how you feel that your group can best represent their work. You will be evaluated on the effectiveness of your presentation, its suitability to the project, and your ability to make the significance of your work legible to an academic audience.
Course Schedule and Readings
I. Epistemologies of Atmosphere and Place
1.
Jan. 12. M: Introduction: Theories of Place, Space, and Atmosphere
Jan. 14 W: Sha, Introduction to Responsive Environments
2. What is place?
Jan. 19 M: MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY
Jan. 21 W: Seamon, “A way of seeing people and place. Phenomenology in Environment-Behavior Research”
3. What is place? cont’d
Jan. 26 M: Setha Low, The Anthropology of Place. Bafna, “Space Syntax, an introduction
Jan. 28 W: Practicum, How is thinking about space abstracted? How useful are these abstractions for real life applications.
4. Place and Culture - Anthropological Approaches
Feb. 2 M: Geertz “Deep Play Notes on a Balinese Cockfight”, Basso “Wisdom Sits in Places”
Feb. 4 W: Practicum, how does culture construct space? And how does this affect culture? How can new technologies intervene in this process?
5. Deep knowledge and the penetration of place into the self
Feb. 9 M: Bourdieu, The Berber House; Selected notes on the habitus and social space.
Feb. 11 W: Practicum. How can the habitus be manifested through responsive media, and how can we use this to learn about ourselves?
II. Constructing Atmosphere: Nature, Culture Ecology
6. Theories of Construction
Feb 16 M: MacCormack, “Nature, Culture, Gender”; Ingold, T. (2003). 'Three in one: how an ecological approach can obviate the distinctions between
body, mind and culture'. in A Roepstorff & N. Bub (eds), Imagining nature: practices of cosmology and identity. Aarhus University Press, Aarhus, pp. 40-55.
Feb 18 W: Practicum, What is the distinction between the subject and the environment? How can this be mediated?
7. Mapping Place
Feb. 23 M: Henri Lefebvre Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life (selections TBA) Ron Broglio, Technologies of the Picturesque (Chapter 2:
Longitude and the Inward Turn p. 29-49)
Feb. 25 W: Practicum: Algorithmic approaches to Rhythymanalysis.
8. Atmosphere
March 2 M: Gernot Böhme, “The art of the stage set as a paradigm for an aesthetics of atmospheres”; Sloterdijk, Peter. Terror from the Air (Chapters 1 & 3
pp. 9-47; 71-106 Gas Warfare-or: The Atmoterrorist Model; Air/Condition)
March 4 W: Phoenix: The Capital of Cool--Stan Cox, Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (And Finding New Ways to Get
Through the Summer), (Chapters 1 & 2 pp. 1-50)
SPRING BREAK
9. Climate
March 16 M: Paul Edwards, A Vast Machine (Chapters 1 & 2 pp. 1-48, Thinking Globally & Global Space, Universal: Seeing the Planetary Atmosphere);
Ingold, T. (2005). 'The eye of the storm: visual perception and the weather'. Visual Studies, vol 20, no. 2, pp. 97-104.
March 18 W: Practicum: How can we stage different conceptions of atmosphere and climate?
10. Weather Cultures
March 23 M: Marita Sturken, 2001, “Desiring the Weather: El Niño, the Media, and California Identity,” Public Culture 13(2): 161–189; Gary Fine, Authors of
the Storm: Meteorology and the Culture of Prediction (Chapters 1 & 5 pp. 19-56; 173-208)
March 25 W: Practcum: How do predictions affect what we notice about the weather? *Preparation for participation in BALANCE/UNBALANCE Conference
III. Enacting Atmosphere and Place: Media Experiments
11. Proposal for Final Projects
March 30 M: Bohme, Gernot, and Olafur Eliasson. Architectural Atmospheres: On the Experience and Politics of Architecture.
April 1 W: Practicum: I, Monsoon critique
12. ATMOSPHERE AND PLACE RESIDENCY: Daily Practicum
April 6 M: Crease, Robert P. The Play of Nature: Experimentation as Performance (Selections TBA) Barad, Karen Michelle. Meeting the Universe Halfway:
Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning (Selections TBA)
April 8 W: Choy, Timothy K. Ecologies of Comparison: An Ethnography of Endangerment in Hong Kong
13: ATMOSPHERE AND PLACE RESIDENCY: Daily Practicum, Cont'd.
April 13 M: Sha, Xin Wei, and Arkady Plotnitsky. Poiesis and Enchantment in Topological Matter. (Selections TBA)
April 15 W: Salter, Chris. Entangled: Technology and the Transformation of Performance. (Selections TBA)
14. Preparations for final presentations
April 20 M: Atmosphere and Place Final Event
April 23 W:
15. Final Presentations
April 27 M:
April 29 W:
Spring 2015
MW 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM (Mondays: Theory / Wednesday: Practice)
Image Credit: Diller+Scofidio, Blur Building, Exposition Pavilion, Swiss Expo, Yverdon-Les-Bains, 2002 (Interior view)
The concepts of atmosphere and place denote both concrete material-geographical domains and ephemeral spheres of meaning. One may locate a place on a map and model the behavior of the atmosphere as a dynamic Earth system but we also speak of having a sense of place and describe places in terms of their atmosphere or ambience. Through a combination of theoretical inquiry and experimental practice, this course considers how our experiences of atmosphere and place are modulated by the arts and sciences, architecture, technology, politics and cultural practices. Drawing upon readings in anthropology, philosophy and science and technology studies we will ask, how have our ways of knowing and creating place and atmosphere varied historically? And what habits of noticing and describing do we require to capture both familiar and unfamiliar ways of inhabiting homes, climates, and social spaces? With these methodological considerations in mind, we will examine how atmosphere and place are constructed, paying particular attention to the way that climate, air, clouds--the phenomena studied by atmospheric science--are imbued with meaning. We will consider how practices of weather prediction, climate control, urban planning and mass mediation inform our sense of place on an intimate and global scale. During the last month of the course we will work across media and disciplines to develop a series of phenomenological experiments to examine how atmosphere and place may be constituted performatively, by structuring our physical environments and our modes of attending, acting and interacting within built and unstructured spaces.
The seminar will be centered on close readings and discussions of selected texts, with opportunities for presenting installation or performative work. In April students will participate in a 2-week residency on Atmosphere and Place at the Synthesis Center, during which time they will work intensively on final projects and papers together with visiting artists and scholars. At the end of the semester each student will be responsible for either a theoretical paper of 16-18 pages OR a substantial technical or performative work accompanied by detailed written documentation (appropriate format to be determined in consultation with the instructors).This course is open to Graduate students in any of the AME concentrations as well as MAS PhD students. MAS PhD students will be able to use this course on their Program of Study for one of the AME required courses. This class also is open to graduate students in English and will count as a theory course. If you are an English graduate student, please make sure you have signed up for the class under the ENG prefix.
Assignments
Practicum Writeups 30%
For each practicum students are expected to write up a short (i.e., not more than a single 1.5 spaced page) in which they discuss their understanding of the theories being read and propose how they can be manifest, experienced, or studied through media.
Group Projects: Coding theory 50%
The main assignment for the class will be a shared group project that takes a detailed examination of one theoretical reading and asks the group to figure out how the theories proposed within can be observed, questioned, refined, or empirically studied through the use of digital technologies. The project should explore theories of place or atmosphere from a different school thought (i.e., groups will not be allowed to work with the same theorists), and rigorously explore how these theories can be used to refine the practices of each group member. For an example of how theory and digital tools can be melded see Roberts et al. ND on the Blackboard site.
This assigment will be divided into three parts:
- Project proposal (10%) A short summary of each groups’ intended exploration that explicitly states the topic, scope, and significance of their proposed explorations, along with a series of precise questions that can be answered through further research.
- Project Bibliography (15%) A five page annotated bibliography outlining the research conducted by the group and how each reading applies to their stated goals.
- Iterative Final Project (25%) The final project itself will be presented in a series of steps. Groups will be allowed to test their digital applications with the instructors and classmates and they will receive feedback. Unlike traditional assignments the goal of this project is not a highly polished finished product, but a much improved result of ongoing research.
Final Presentation 20%
A final presentation outlining the trajectories and the results of the group projects will be required. Well-timed, articulate presentations are one of the most important skills you can learn in the academy. The presentation can take on different forms, depending on how you feel that your group can best represent their work. You will be evaluated on the effectiveness of your presentation, its suitability to the project, and your ability to make the significance of your work legible to an academic audience.
Course Schedule and Readings
I. Epistemologies of Atmosphere and Place
1.
Jan. 12. M: Introduction: Theories of Place, Space, and Atmosphere
Jan. 14 W: Sha, Introduction to Responsive Environments
2. What is place?
Jan. 19 M: MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY
Jan. 21 W: Seamon, “A way of seeing people and place. Phenomenology in Environment-Behavior Research”
3. What is place? cont’d
Jan. 26 M: Setha Low, The Anthropology of Place. Bafna, “Space Syntax, an introduction
Jan. 28 W: Practicum, How is thinking about space abstracted? How useful are these abstractions for real life applications.
4. Place and Culture - Anthropological Approaches
Feb. 2 M: Geertz “Deep Play Notes on a Balinese Cockfight”, Basso “Wisdom Sits in Places”
Feb. 4 W: Practicum, how does culture construct space? And how does this affect culture? How can new technologies intervene in this process?
5. Deep knowledge and the penetration of place into the self
Feb. 9 M: Bourdieu, The Berber House; Selected notes on the habitus and social space.
Feb. 11 W: Practicum. How can the habitus be manifested through responsive media, and how can we use this to learn about ourselves?
II. Constructing Atmosphere: Nature, Culture Ecology
6. Theories of Construction
Feb 16 M: MacCormack, “Nature, Culture, Gender”; Ingold, T. (2003). 'Three in one: how an ecological approach can obviate the distinctions between
body, mind and culture'. in A Roepstorff & N. Bub (eds), Imagining nature: practices of cosmology and identity. Aarhus University Press, Aarhus, pp. 40-55.
Feb 18 W: Practicum, What is the distinction between the subject and the environment? How can this be mediated?
7. Mapping Place
Feb. 23 M: Henri Lefebvre Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life (selections TBA) Ron Broglio, Technologies of the Picturesque (Chapter 2:
Longitude and the Inward Turn p. 29-49)
Feb. 25 W: Practicum: Algorithmic approaches to Rhythymanalysis.
8. Atmosphere
March 2 M: Gernot Böhme, “The art of the stage set as a paradigm for an aesthetics of atmospheres”; Sloterdijk, Peter. Terror from the Air (Chapters 1 & 3
pp. 9-47; 71-106 Gas Warfare-or: The Atmoterrorist Model; Air/Condition)
March 4 W: Phoenix: The Capital of Cool--Stan Cox, Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (And Finding New Ways to Get
Through the Summer), (Chapters 1 & 2 pp. 1-50)
SPRING BREAK
9. Climate
March 16 M: Paul Edwards, A Vast Machine (Chapters 1 & 2 pp. 1-48, Thinking Globally & Global Space, Universal: Seeing the Planetary Atmosphere);
Ingold, T. (2005). 'The eye of the storm: visual perception and the weather'. Visual Studies, vol 20, no. 2, pp. 97-104.
March 18 W: Practicum: How can we stage different conceptions of atmosphere and climate?
10. Weather Cultures
March 23 M: Marita Sturken, 2001, “Desiring the Weather: El Niño, the Media, and California Identity,” Public Culture 13(2): 161–189; Gary Fine, Authors of
the Storm: Meteorology and the Culture of Prediction (Chapters 1 & 5 pp. 19-56; 173-208)
March 25 W: Practcum: How do predictions affect what we notice about the weather? *Preparation for participation in BALANCE/UNBALANCE Conference
III. Enacting Atmosphere and Place: Media Experiments
11. Proposal for Final Projects
March 30 M: Bohme, Gernot, and Olafur Eliasson. Architectural Atmospheres: On the Experience and Politics of Architecture.
April 1 W: Practicum: I, Monsoon critique
12. ATMOSPHERE AND PLACE RESIDENCY: Daily Practicum
April 6 M: Crease, Robert P. The Play of Nature: Experimentation as Performance (Selections TBA) Barad, Karen Michelle. Meeting the Universe Halfway:
Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning (Selections TBA)
April 8 W: Choy, Timothy K. Ecologies of Comparison: An Ethnography of Endangerment in Hong Kong
13: ATMOSPHERE AND PLACE RESIDENCY: Daily Practicum, Cont'd.
April 13 M: Sha, Xin Wei, and Arkady Plotnitsky. Poiesis and Enchantment in Topological Matter. (Selections TBA)
April 15 W: Salter, Chris. Entangled: Technology and the Transformation of Performance. (Selections TBA)
14. Preparations for final presentations
April 20 M: Atmosphere and Place Final Event
April 23 W:
15. Final Presentations
April 27 M:
April 29 W:
