On Atmospheres: Spaces of Embodiment

Cover Photo © Iwan Baan 

ON ATMOSPHERES: Spaces of Embodiment aims to press for a “meteorological turn” in design—a shift that recognizes the role of atmosphere and atmospherics as crucial subjects in the design of the contemporary city, and thus repositions the importance of aesthetics and sensation as physiological responses that mediate between the body and the built environment. Acknowledging the increasingly broad and specialized inquiry from a range of disciplines in the context of measured and sensed meteorological conditions, the symposium gathers a series of internationally prominent philosophers, artists, urbanists, architects, scholars, landscape architects, and landscape historians to reflect upon sensory well-being and the conditions of embodiment in the city. Organized By Silvia Benedito MAUD ’04, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, Harvard GSD, with the support of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA), and the Rouse Visiting Artist Program and Daniel Urban Kiley Fund at Harvard GSD.

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Speakers and participants include:

February 4th

Keynote speaker: Günther Vogt, Vogt Landscape Architects, ETH Zürich

February 5th

Atmosphere as Matter:
Gernot Böhme, Institut für Praxis der Philosophie
Kathleen L. John-Alder, Rutgers University
Philippe Rahm, Philippe Rahm Architects, Harvard GSD
Klaus K. Loenhart, terrain: architects and landscape architects, Technical University of Graz
Chris Welsby, Filmmaker, Simon Fraser University
Session moderated by Iñaki Abalos, Harvard GSD and Edward Eigen, Harvard GSD

Atmosphere as Condition:
Michael Jakob, La Haute École du Paysage, d’Ingénierie et d’Architecture de Genève
Barbara Kenda, Virginia Tech’s Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center
Ulrich Reuter, Department for Urban Climatology, Office for Environmental Protection
Iwan Baan, Photographer
Session moderated by Sonja Dümpelmann, Harvard GSD and Antoine Picon, Harvard GSD

Atmosphere as Affect:
David Howes, Centre for Sensory Studies, Concordia University
Jonathan Hill, Bartlett School of Architecture
Matthias Schuler, TRANSSOLAR Climate Engineering
Catherine Mosbach, Mosbach Paysagistes
Tomás Saraceno, Artist
Session moderated by Kiel Moe, Harvard GSD and Anne Whiston Spirn, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Anuradha Mathur, University of Pennsylvania, will moderate the final roundtable.

An accompanying installation will be Pneuma(tic) Bodies, a collaborative project by Silvia Benedito, Alexander Häusler, and Jill Johnson, on view at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, from February 3-21, 2016.

A performance and discussion will take place February 3 at 6:00pm, with Jill Johnson, Director of Dance OFA Dance Program, Theater, Dance & Media. Live music by Hans Tutschku, Fanny P. Mason Professor of Music at Harvard University.

Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the Public Programs Office at (617) 496-2414 or [email protected].

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