Magic Materialism: From Atmospheric Technologies to Architectures of Affect

There has been a renaissance in the study of affect and atmospheres along with technologically developed contemporary reality. Despite the critique of atmospheres as diffuse and ‘groundless’ theory, this investigation shows it to be a promising concept for a variety of fields including science, art and technology. Of strongest interest to this paper is the field of spatial arts with special focus on affective dimensions of sound and light. Aside from emphasizing the material qualities of the latter along with feelings and affects, the correlation between these ‘atmospheric’ components will be traced in the current research with relation to volume and intensity. Along with affording a critique of dominant theoretical approaches such as the new materialism, atmospheres are considered as affective qualities that can be re-produced and mediated by technologies. Accordingly, the notion of atmosphere serves not only to 'set' territorial climate but as a scaffold for the atmospheric architecture composed of sound and feelings: vibrant, fluid, and poetic, yet material.