Regina Cohen on Embodiment: "Atmospheres" in Place

Later I will present Dr Regina Cohen's work in context. Here I excerpt a large portion of one of her recent papers to introduce the concept "atmospheres" as a tool for educating on the value of Universal Design.

Here we have a much more developed concept than the neologism "ambioception" that I introduced.

Ambioception included a notion of skill development related to judgments about body-in-space. Atmospheres looks more at the phenomenology of perception. The concept of atmospheres conifers socio-linguistic validation on the process of the arising of perceptions and mental states that constitutes the datum of Vipassana meditative practice. By "freezing" the reality of these subtler mental proceeses into an accepted concept "atmospheres" it becomes possible for one to retain a gaze on the gestalt of affective tone and sustain discourse on emotional design, experience economy,and disability culture in tourism:

 The concept of Atmospheres

"Atmosphere is the foundation of sensibility, because it associates the one who perceives with the perceived object. An atmosphere is born from the encounter between the physical surroundings, my corporeity with its ability to feel, move, and become an affectionate tonality".

Jean-François Augoyard. La construction des atmospheres quotidienne: l'ordinaire de la culture. In CULTURE ET RECHERCHE No. 114-115

Scholars of the spacial characteristics which influence people's behavior have long abandoned a
purely Cartesian approach, one which analyzes solely the physical constraints of the environment.
Thus, a search for a new concept and paradigm associated to it has begun. One which also involves
the body in motion, its motor expressions, its sensorial and kinesthetic paths, its ability to feel, being
enveloped by these emotions and sensations in its search for identity and ownership of these spaces.
The concept of atmospheres expresses the material and moral environments which include the
thermal, light and noise sensations. (Amphoux Pascal, 2004). Its first academics sought interdiscipline
in the development of their research, thus seeking to show that architecture and the city are based on
interdependencies between the built and the perceived shapes.

Atmospheres can be perceived through a special light or a particular sound when we approach or
reach a certain space. This space, according to the perceived sensations, may present itself as a
calm and peaceful atmosphere, or, on the other hand, a confusing and disturbing one.
According to Nicolas Tixier (2007), an atmosphere is always unique and irreducible, varying according
to the day, time, people and our actions. Despite all of these variations, there are characteristics that
bestow it with an identity, making it possible for us to recognize it. According to Tixier, the notion of
atmosphere contradicts any strict definition. "Our perceptions, senses, actions, and representations
are perceived in a singular way, as a whole, not as individual entities." (Tixier, 2007, p.10).
To Jean-François Augoyard (2007), one of the first academics to work with this concept, the activities
or materialization of life are already possible, but include many more feelings. "From subject to object,
subject to subject, body to body, empathy is our first primitive and irreflective way of being a part of the
world" (Augoyard, 2007, 60).

Firstly, according to his conception, we meet with the other, the atmosphere, and we become involved
and affected by those around us, "we become part of it". This is a process in an intuitive world. The
atmospheres proposed by Augoyard strive to take into account the perceived sensorial qualities of the
environment, such as light, sound, tactile matter and spaces that call for kinesthesia and posture.
Seen from this point of view, the museum atmospheres that will be discussed here fit with precision in
the context of disabled people, absorbing the intersensorial dynamics.
Following this trend, the French sociologist Jean-Paul Thibaud (2004) works with a pragmatic
perspective of urban atmospheres, taking into consideration the need to look for ways in which the city
can be approached in a sensitive manner. He proposes an interdisciplinary approach that is based on
the phenomenology of perception - which searches for a way in which to position the body so that it
may learn the world.

Thus, this concept resembles the notion of space presented in a large number of contemporary
essays on a variety of disciplines, which criticise the abstract space and goals. Furthermore, Thibaud
(2004), states that orientation, paths, and the mobility of individuals through or along spaces and
atmospheres embrace the corporeal advancements in a character's perception of time and space
context.