Posts Tagged ‘envelopment’

Exkurs zum Atmosphärenbegriff

Monday, September 15th, 2014

Manchmal ist es doch etwas schade, aus Texten gelöschte Abschnitte einfach dem allmählichen Verschwinden in denen Tiefen der Datenbackups zu überantworten. Der folgende Text wurde ursprünglich für meinen Beitrag zum Anfang 2015 erscheinenden, von Hanna Katharina Göbel und Sophia Prinz herausgegebenen Buch Die Sinnlichkeit des Sozialen geschrieben. In meinem Text geht es um die Umdefinition des Sinnbegriffs weg vom gemeinten Sinn nach Max Weber und hin zum Bewegungssinn. Da die hier entwickelten Überlegungen zum Atmosphärenbegriff aber eigentlich nicht besonders gut in die dortige Argumentation passt, flog er im Überarbeitungsprozess raus. Hier hat er nun seinen neuen Ort:

Die Erfahrungen des Wartens, Folgens, Begegnens und der Abwesenheit ließen sich auch über den Begriff der Atmosphäre beschreiben. Die Atmosphäre eines Bahnsteigs, eines nebligen Tags im späten Winter, einer erhabenen Aussicht oder einer verfallenen Ruine – sie alle könnten gewissermaßen als Prototypen für affective atmospheres im Sinn von Anderson (2009) stehen. Sie beziehen sich sowohl auf Materialitäten als auch auf Erfahrungsqualitäten und gehen so über reine Körperlichkeit hinaus. Bei Anderson steht dafür sowohl der Begriff des Affekts, in Anschluss an Deleuze und Guattari (1992) verbunden mit der objektiven, gegenständlichen Welt, als auch der Begriff der Emotion, verbunden mit der subjekter Erfahrung und Bedeutungszuweisung. (Anderson 2009: 80) Ähnlich wie bei Böhme (1995), hat das Konzept der Atmosphäre hier eine klare Anknüpfung an das Subjekt und an Gegenstände oder Orte und nimmt so eine vermittelnde Position zwischen Subjekt und Objekt ein. Diese Position – anknüpfend an Materialität und Wahrnehmung – macht das Konzept der Atmosphäre so spannend und potentiell fruchtbar. Gleichzeitig aber scheint dem Begriff der Atmosphäre eine merkwürdige Qualität innezuwohnen. Zum einen haftet ihm immer noch ein Element des Begriffs der Aura an, d.h. einer herausragenden Erfahrung, die sich mit besonderen Orten oder Gegenständen verknüpft. (Benjamin 1974) Zum anderen gibt es eine Verknüpfungskette Atmosphäre – Architektur – Raum, in der Atmosphären vor allem an Orte geknüpft werden. Dabei haftet dem Begriff der Atmosphäre zwar ein gewisser Aspekt der Zeitlichkeit an, diese wird aber weitgehend über den Begriff der Situation abgedeckt und so als mit einem Ort und nicht mit einer Bewegung verknüpft gesehen.
Dass diese Verknüpfung nicht notwendig ist, wird durch Böhmes Diskussion der von Personen ausstrahlenden Atmosphären (Böhme 1993: 113-114) und durch Andersons Fokus auf den Affekt, bei dem Prozessualität und das Werden von entscheidender Bedeutung sind. (Anderson 2009: 78) Trotzdem löst sich der Begriff nicht so sehr von Orten, wie es für die hier vorgeschlagene Perspektivierung des Sinnbegriffs notwendig wäre. Statt dessen ist der Begriff der Einhüllung aus mehreren Gründen angemessener (vgl. dazu Frers 2007): Erstens verweist er von vornherein auf einen Prozess. Im Unterschied zur Atmosphäre besteht eine Hülle nicht einfach schon, gleichsam außerhalb des Individuums und wird einfach betreten. Eine Hülle muss erst wachsen, angelegt oder übergestülpt werden. Zweitens ist es deutlicher, dass Hüllen mobil sind. Sie werden getragen, ergänzt, mitgenommen. Sie tragen sich ab oder halten lange. Drittens lassen sich Hüllen miteinander kombinieren oder staffeln, da sie vor allem an – bewegliche – Personen gekoppelt sind. So kann eine in eine bestimmte Stimmung gehüllte Person einen Ort betreten und dort auf andere Weise, von anderen Stimmungen eingehüllt werden. Was bei diesen Begegnungen und Vermischungen von Hüllen passiert ist dann selbst Gegenstand der Analyse. Viertens ist die Hülle nicht in der selben Weise als Sphäre überbestimmt (Anderson 2009: 80). Eine Hülle kann an unterschiedlichen Stellen verschiedene Qualitäten und Durchlässigkeiten aufweisen. Sie kann beispielsweise nach oben, unten und hinten geschlossen, aber nach vorne hin offen sein. Hüllen bzw. der Prozess der Einhüllung zeichnen sich also ebenso wie der hier umgedeutete Begriff des Sinns durch Bewegung und Beweglichkeit aus. Einhüllungen bringen auf diese Weise notwendigerweise Ausrichtungen mit sich und sind damit wiederum in die Herstellung sozialer Ordnung eingebunden. Im Unterschied zum Begriff der Atmosphäre zeichnet sich der Begriff der Einhüllung also fünftens und letztens auch dadurch aus, dass er den Zugang zum Problem sozialer Kontrolle erleichtert und weniger stark dazu verleitet, sich auf rein ästhetische Fragestellungen zu fixieren. Wie bereits oben angeführt, ist es auch möglich, über den Begriff der Atmosphäre Veränderungsprozesse einzufangen, Zusammenhänge mit Personen herzustellen und eine gewisse Mobilität abzubilden. Die eigentliche Stärke – und damit auch Verlockung – des Begriffs der Atmosphäre ist jedoch die Analyse von Orten, nicht die Analyse von Bewegungen.

Literatur
Anderson, Ben (2009) Affective atmospheres. Emotion, Space and Society 2(2): 77-81.
Benjamin, Walter (1936/1974) Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit [erste Fassung]. In Abhandlungen, Gesammelte Schriften, Band I-1. Herausgegeben von Rolf Tiedemann, Hermann Schweppenhäuser, Theodor W. Adornoandere. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. S. 431-469.
Böhme, Gernot (1995) Atmosphäre : Essays zur neuen Ästhetik. Reihe. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Deleuze, Gilles und Félix Guattari (1980/1992) Tausend Plateaus : Kapitalismus und Schizophrenie. Übersetzt von Gabriele Ricke und Ronald Voullié. Berlin: Merve.
Frers, Lars (2007) Einhüllende Materialitäten : Eine Phänomenologie des Wahrnehmens und Handelns an Bahnhöfen und Fährterminals. Reihe: Materialitäten, Band 5. Bielefeld: transcript.

Review for Encountering Urban Places in Environment and Planning D : Society and Space.

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

Yay! Today, my favorite academic journal has published a review of the book Lars Meier and I have edited one year ago. The review was written by Sara Westin. If your university has subscribed to Environment and Planning D, then you can download the review here: DOI 10.1068/d2605rvw. For those who are not in such a lucky position I will to post two snippets from the review – the first about the book as a whole, the second about the chapter written by yours truly:

The different texts can be read as freestanding articles, but what bind them together—except for the focus on the urban encounter and the use of the visual—are the explicit or implicit references to the works of Lefebvre. This is a clever editorial arrangement that results in something more than the sum of all parts. Last but not least, it is uplifting to take part in urban research that to such a high degree is produced outside the Anglo-Saxon context: only three of the ten contributors are working in universities in the United States (not a single one in the UK or in Canada). The non-Anglo-Saxon focus, which is not something that is made explicit by the editors, is to a certain extent reflected in the choice of examples as well as in the bibliographies […] Conclusively, although slightly overpriced, Encountering Urban Places is an interesting book that provides not only a rematerialization but also a diversification of the urban research tradition.

I find Encountering Urban Places incredibly inspiring since it offers a range of interesting ways to explore the multidimensionality of everyday encounters and how these encounters may play a part in the production of places. Here I especially want to mention Frers’s concept of ‘envelopment’—an analytic tool which can be used to understand the constant interaction between things and people that characterizes everyday urban encounters and to evoke a sense of what we experience and help understand why we do certain things (page 44). The concept refers to the process that unfolds when we are moving around in the city. As we enter different social – material – spatial constallations we are constantly enveloped by impressions—all of which configure our behaviour. However, Frers stresses, this is not a passive process—we are not just being enveloped by our surroundings, we are also enveloping ourselves. By drawing on Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Frers challenges the Cartesian mind – body dichotomy as well as the division between agency and perception: our intentions, our mood, our corporal condition all play crucial parts in the envelopment process since they filter our perception, which in turn guides our actions. Frers analysis focuses on the in-between space—the envelope—that extends into both actor and surrounding. The concept does not refer to an object in the real world (page 34), but rather to a constantly changing process which although subtle, is extremely powerful since it restrains and enables action.

We’re of course really, really glad about getting such a positive review! Hopefully it will attract some new readers for our book. :) In any case it provides a lot of motivation to see that people enjoy the fruits of the work that has been invested into this volume by all of its contributors.

Space, materiality, perception. The process of envelopment.

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

I am quite happy to tell you that I will be presenting a paper at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) in Boston this April. Actually, I wanted to go to last year’s meeting in San Francisco too, but the deadlines were right in the middle of my dissertation, defense, and getting new job as a postdoc phase of turmoil, so that I was not able to apply. Things were not as stressful this season, therefore I found the time to craft an abstract. This is what I am going to talk about during the session Thinking Geography:

Entering a building or any other spatial setting, people encounter a new spatial-material and social constellation. This constellation envelops those who enter the setting. All kinds of impressions intrude upon those who enter, thus changing the things they perceive and the way they act. Noises, light and darkness, smells, the texture of surfaces, and many other aspects of the surroundings present themselves to the perception of those who enter. However, those entering a setting bring certain intentions with them. They are involved in certain activities and they follow bodily and mental routines. Thus they also produce an envelope of their own, which regulates the distance to their surroundings, their perceptions, and their actions. In consequence, the envelope is created both by people themselves and by their surroundings. In this presentation, I will use a phenomenologically informed approach to investigate spatialized activities. Thus I will show how the process of envelopment produces social control in ways that are hard to recognize and trace. Presenting video recordings taken in railway terminals in Germany and Scandinavia, I will demonstrate the subtle ways in which people relate to their spatial-material-social environments, thus opening a new perspective on how to understand issues of social control: a perspective that takes perception, bodies and materiality into view.

I am really looking forward to meeting many people who I haven’t met for two or three years – the AAG meeting usually is a very good occasion to get back into touch.

Einhüllende Materialitäten – bald bei Ihrem Buchhändler.

Friday, June 22nd, 2007

Einband des Buches Einhüllende Materialitäten von Lars FrersWer den Herbstkatalog des Transcript Verlags sorgfältig studiert hat, wird es schon bemerkt haben. Für alle anderen (also quasi alle) gibt es die Ankündigung jetzt auch im Internet: Einhüllende Materialitäten : Eine Phänomenologie des Wahrnehmens und Handelns an Bahnhöfen und Fährterminals. Mit kurzem Werbetext und – vor allem – dem hier gezeigten kleinen Vorschaubild des Einbands. Es ist so spanned, man glaubt es kaum! Dann will ich mal gleich weiter machen mit meinen Überarbeitungen, Kürzungen und Korrekturen, damit das Büchlein im November auch wirklich in Topform erhältlich ist.

Sight of land or overtaking the thesis.

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006

Good news, I guess. In the course of the last few days I was able to wrap up the chapters in which I introduce the term envelopment (Einhüllung). Because of the seething heat I lost track of my work for a few days, first bathing in the North Sea, then staring at the screen without seeing anything. Either frustration with lack of progress or adaptation to the heat finally set in and pushed me forward again, so that now – for the first time – I feel that I have completed a significant part of my dissertation. It is now quite a bit longer than my diploma thesis. There is land at the other side of the sea of words. Ahoy!

Enveloping myself.

Sunday, November 27th, 2005

I like to travel, but there is one major downside to traveling: noise. It is worst in airplanes. Even if the flight is just an hour long, I feel totally knocked out during the flight and probably for the following hours too. The noise inside the plane is just too much for me. In trains the noise is more subdued, depending on where one sits, depending on the train, and on the quality of the tracks. Nonetheless, after more than four hours the noise starts to nag at me, producing a certain feeeling of unrest – a feeling between being tired and being over-sensible.
More than a year ago, I read about a new generation of consumer headphones that have built-in active noise cancellation technology, which was said to reduce noise by neutralizing it with anti-noise (you should know a bit about the nature of waves to guess how this works). Since then, such a noise-canceling headphone has taken one of the highest priorities on my gadget wish-list.
A few weeks ago, after finishing some tiresome work optimizing the HTML code for a friend’s website I decided I’m in for a reward, checked the current offerings for noise canceling headphones, and decided that the Sennheiser’s PXC series is what I am looking for. After doing some price comparisons I decided to place a bid for the 250 model on eBay. I got lucky and bought the thing for 78 € including shipping.
The PXC 250 is a foldable headphone that is designed to be easily transportable. The one thing that differentiates it from other portable headphones is a stick about as thick as my thumb and about twice as long. This stick is home to two AAA batteries and (at least I would guess so) the noise-cancellation electronics. The cable from the headphone jack goes into it and another cable leads from the stick to the headphones. The stick is probably the biggest drawback to the whole thing, because one has to decide where to put it. At least it has a clip that allows attaching the stick to your belt or, as I usually do, to one of the pockets of my pants. The length of both cables is a bit less than a meter. If you’re not taller than 2.10 meters this should work for you. The headphone itself is light and comfortable to wear. It is, however, not as comfortable as my Koss Porta Pro, because the earpads exert a bit more pressure on your outer ear. This is necessary though – the pads will passively filter out the higher frequencies thus they have to fit tightly enough to not let sound pass by unobstructed. Still, after several hours of wear it is a relief to take them off for a while and massage your ears a bit.
On the stick there is a well-designed sliding button that turns on the noise cancellation. Before turning it on in a train you will hear rumbling and other lower frequency noises. After turning it on you will hear … less. The rumbling fades away to a gentler, smoother lower frequency noise. This general reduction of volume along with the smoothing has a soothing effect. The noise is definitely not gone, but it surely is less bothersome. You can use this feature without having the headphone plugged in to another device. This noise reduction is also great if you want to listen to music: you don’t need to turn the volume as high as you would have to without the noise cancellation. This makes listening to music less stressful too. Great stuff. Excellent investment.
If you turn the thing on in a silent environment you will notice a subtle hiss in the speakers. This hissing noise is, at least to me, practically inaudible in a train or a similarly noisy environment. If you want to use the headphones without the noise cancellation turned on you will be disappointed. The bass will be much to low – there seems to be some kind of loudness function associated with the noise filter. Other than that the sound quality of the PXC 250 is very good; I would say it is in the same league as the excellent Porta Pro. All in all I can definitely recommend this device. I am looking forward to test it in an airplane, but I am quite confident that it will make flying a less bothersome experience.
The only real drawback that I am feeling is that this thing will make the envelope that I build around me while traveling even less permeable. Of course I can work better and listen to music in a more relaxed manner when wearing these headphones. Nonetheless, it also lessens my contact to my surroundings. I am less approachable, won’t hear people having a conflict, won’t hear the chatter of others around me, won’t hear nice stories people might tell each other. Some chances will just pass by without being noticed. *sigh* Such is the nature of envelopment.

Multimedia ahoy.

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005

Frers Productions is proud to present: Perception, Aesthetics and Envelopment a video recording and the outline of my talk at our post-graduate college’s concluding conference. Thanks to Lars Meier for recording it – and of course for co-hosting the session, thanks to the rest of the grandiose organization team of the conference and thanks of course to the other participants of the Larses’ panel Urban Spaces and Private Quarters for a good and constructive discussion.

I was made aware of a two people who developed similar ideas to the concept of envelopment: Georg Simmel (could have thought of that myself, since I read and even lectured about the relevant essay on Die Großstädte und das Geistesleben several times. The other hint was on the term personal bubbles which seems to be used quite frequently in the anglo-american world – I am still looking for more info on this term, but it seems that it carries some different connotations. Furthermore, I don’t think of the envelope as something that can burst or pop like a bubble. It is more like a field or sphere or a ball of cotton. Nonetheless, good to know about it. Another idea came back to me later: Richard Sennett, of course, has also talked about a sphere of comfort that is produced in city of today in the book that still has the most pivotal influence on my current work: Flesh and Stone.

Back to the title: I have embedded the video into the new page using valid XHTML code without any fiddling & CSS tricksing. That means that the embedded video won’t be displayed in all browsers though. I would be very happy to hear about the cases where it does / doesn’t work – please write a comment (if you have been a lurker until today: you can write a comment by clicking on the ‘x notes’ link below) and tell me about it. In case the embedded stuff does not work, one can just download the .mp4 file and then play it. I would like to hear about the minimum requirements for playing this, too (for example, I have no idea what version of Windows Media Player is required for playing this file).

Perception, Aesthetics, and Encapsulation – Encountering Space and the Materiality of Railway and Ferry Terminal Buildings.

Wednesday, August 24th, 2005

Following is my abstract for our college’s concluding conference on Technological and Aesthetic (Trans)Formations of Society in October. Writing this has renewed my good feelings and motivation for this conference.

Terminals are places of modernity, of transport and communication. They are portals to the city, places of representation and power, but they are also places of deviance, decline and seduction. In this presentation, I will look at the polished stone, steel and glass surfaces but I will also look into the shadows and plumb the depths of these places. How do they interact with the people that use them? The aesthetics of the things, the technology and the architecture of railway and ferry terminals is perceived by women and men who use these places. Entering these places, people change direction, speed and mood. To capture and analyze these changes, happening in the crucial moment of entering a place, I want to introduce the term encapsulation (Einhhüllung).

With the aid of digital video recordings the different aspects of the process of encapsulation will be explored and displayed for consideration and critique. Encapsulation is projected as phenomenologically rooted term that has both passive and active components. Passive, because people are encapsulated by a specific, preexistent atmosphere when they enter a place. Active, because people encapsulate or envelop themselves when they enter a place. They build up a protective cover around them, to shield them from potential dangers and irritations. Confronting the abstract analytical term encapsulation with concrete everyday life in railway and ferry stations should demonstrate both its productivity and its limitations.

Zweiter Zwischenbericht.

Saturday, April 2nd, 2005

Nachdem ich im vergangenen Monat meinen zweiten Zwischenbericht inklusive Verlängerungsantrag für das letzte Förderungsjahr beim Kolleg eingereicht habe und selbiger Antrag am 24. März auch bewilligt wurde kann ich den Antrag jetzt im Internet veröffentlichen: Dissertation ‚Einhüllende Normalitäten‘ – Zweiter Zwischenbericht. Rückmeldung ist wie immer willkommen.