The Atmospherical "we": Moods and Collective Feelings

Is there really an atmospheric turn? The concept of "atmosphere" as a qualitative-emotional prius of sensory experience seems today to have encouraged the convergence of many interdisciplinary studies focused on the qualitative aspects of our "surroundings". Based on the neo-phenomenological theory of atmospheric perception as a primary pathic impression and a felt-bodily communication, this book explores the relationship between atmospheres, expressive qualities, moods and collective feelings (including well-being). It thus clarifies the key features of a general "pathic" aesthetics. It considers perceivers as beings who are touched by atmospheric feelings in emotional and tactile ways. These feelings are both widespread and vary in their modulation of lived space. They are also ontologically rooted in things and quasi-things of the lifeworld. By realising how they expose themselves to what happens (especially in an unintentional way), perceivers turn out not to be "subjects of something" but rather "subject to something".